The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed that a review it undertook on controversial video-sharing platform TikTok was simply a standard network evaluation.
Addressing the Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media on Friday, Home Affairs first assistant secretary Hamish Hansford said a risk assessment was undertaken on TikTok internally for departmental systems in January 2020 by the department's cybersecurity risk area.
"We routinely look at areas of vulnerability across our departmental protected network, as well as our systems, as well as our mobile devices, and that's a routine function undertaken by our cybersecurity risk area sitting within our information and communication technology area of the department," he said.
"That conforms with some of the guidance by the Australian Signals Directorate around application whitelisting, application control, locking down systems from macros -- that type of thing -- so that was done in the context of departmental systems."
Hansford said the Home Affairs review was portrayed in a different way. He said the internal review was completely distinct from the role that his division plays in relation to cybersecurity policy advice to government.
See also: JCPAA calls for Commonwealth entities to be cyber assessed annually by ANAO[1]
There was no advice provided to government on TikTok as a result of this review.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison in August said that he had a "good look" at TikTok[2] and there was no evidence to suggest the misuse of any person's data.
"We have had a look, a good look at this, and there is no evidence for us to suggest, having done that, that there is any misuse of any people's data that has occurred, at least from an Australian perspective, in relation to these applications," he told the Aspen Security Forum.
"You know, there's plenty of