Chi-com-backed company provides security scanners to global hot-spots.

Europe’s security could be under threat as security scanners in sensitive spots were revealed Thursday to have been manufactured by a Chinese Communist Party-backed company.

Despite the U.S. adding the Chinese company Nuctech to the Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List due to security concerns, Nuctech still supplies security scanning machines for people, baggage and cargo, to airports across Europe, between NATO’s borders with Russia and also at the World Economic Forum in Davos – in fact, 26 of 27 E.U. member states currently use the machines, AP reports.

Security officials in both Europe and the U.S. have expressed concerns that the use of Communist China-backed Nuctech machines could be a major security risk as sensitive documents or information on electronic devices passing through the machines could be being scanned by Chinese agents.

Likewise, the machines could help facilitate a Chinese state-sponsored event such as a terrorist attack if Nuctech machines were modified to allow individuals possessing explosives or firearms to pass through security checkpoints uninhibited.

Bart Groothuis, the former director of cybersecurity at the Dutch Ministry of Defense turned Dutch MEP said, “The data being processed by these devices is very sensitive. It’s personal data, military data, cargo data. It might be trade secrets at stake.”

“You’re dependent on a foreign actor which is a geopolitical adversary and strategic rival”, he continued.

The concerns about Chinese interference or espionage are based on it being a requirement for companies in China to surrender any data requested by Chinese authorities.

The Canadian government considers Nuctech to have an “elevated threat” of espionage and in July 2020 a Canadian government security review of Nuctech concluded their scanning devices could be used to obtain sensitive information from electronic devices, and could be modified to allow prohibited items to pass through without setting off alarms.

Team USA has recommended athletes leave their personal electronics home and use burner phones to thwart Chinese spying during the upcoming "Genocide Games". https://t.co/exmGVa4izT