<p>In yet another show of the misuse of China's ascendant tech prowess, Bytedance, the parent company of short-video social media app TikTok, hacked the TikTok accounts of two US-based journalists. ByteDance employees reportedly accessed the data of what is cited to be an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information earlier this year, according to an email from ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen, Reuters reported.</p>

<p>The identity of the journalists has been revealed as Financial Times reporter Cristina Criddle and former Buzzfeed writer (now with Forbes) Emily Baker-White.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The disclosure is set to further the pressure on the Shenzen-based social media platform over security concerns about United States' user data, which have kept it in the news cycle over the past many months.</p>

<p><strong>Employees fired, apology issued</strong></p>

<p>About four ByteDance employees who were involved in the incident were fired, including two in China and two in the United States. Company officials quoted by Reuters said that they were taking additional steps to protect user data.</p>

<p>"This misconduct is not at all representative of what I know our company's principles to be," TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew said in a separate email to employees, Reuters reported.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>WATCH |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/tiktok-in-the-us-tiktoks-attempts-to-reassure-government-security-concerns-surrounding-the-app-545724">TikTok in the US: TikTok's attempts to reassure government, security concerns surrounding the app</a></strong></p>

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<p>He said the company "will continue to enhance these access protocols, which have already been significantly improved and hardened since this initiative took place."</p>

<p>The US Congress is set to pass legislation this week to ban government employees from downloading or using TikTok on their government-owned devices.</p>

<p>Chew said that over the past 15 months the company had been working to build TikTok U.S. Data Security (USDS) to ensure that protected TikTok U.S. user data stays in the U.S.</p>

<p><strong>ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/one-third-of-users-regularly-get-their-news-from-tiktok-claims-new-study-528120">One-third of users regularly get their news from TikTok, claims new study</a></strong></p>

<p>"The USDS department is limiting access of that data to the USDS department and has already done so across our production systems," he said. "We are completing the migration of protected US user data management to the USDS department and have been systematically cutting off access points."</p>

<p>The U.S. government Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national security body, has for months sought to reach a national security agreement with ByteDance to protect the data of more than 100 million U.S. TikTok users, but it appears no deal will be reached before year's end.</p>

<p><strong>WATCH WION LIVE HERE</strong></p>

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In yet another show of the misuse of China's ascendant tech prowess, Bytedance, the parent company of short-video social media app TikTok, hacked the TikTok accounts of two US-based journalists.

In yet another show of the misuse of China's ascendant tech prowess, Bytedance, the parent company of short-video social media app TikTok, hacked the TikTok accounts of two US-based journalists. ByteDance employees reportedly accessed the data of what is cited to be an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information earlier this year, according to an email from ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen, Reuters reported. The identity of the journalists has been revealed as Financial Times reporter Cristina Criddle and former Buzzfeed writer (now with Forbes) Emily Baker-White. The disclosure is set to further the pressure on the Shenzen-based social media platform over security concerns about United States' user data, which have kept it in the news cycle over the past many months. Employees fired, apology issued About four ByteDance employees who were involved in the incident were fired, including two in China and two in the United States. Company officials quoted by Reuters said that they were taking additional steps to protect user data. "This misconduct is not at all representative of what I know our company's principles to be," TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew said in a separate email to employees, Reuters reported. WATCH | TikTok in the US: TikTok's attempts to reassure government, security concerns surrounding the app × He said the company "will continue to enhance these access protocols, which have already been significantly improved and hardened since this initiative took place." The US Congress is set to pass legislation this week to ban government employees from downloading or using TikTok on their government-owned devices. Chew said that over the past 15 months the company had been working to build TikTok U.S. Data Security (USDS) to ensure that protected TikTok U.S. user data stays in the U.S. ALSO READ | One-third of users regularly get their news from TikTok, claims new study "The USDS department is limiting access of that data to the USDS department and has already done so across our production systems," he said. "We are completing the migration of protected US user data management to the USDS department and have been systematically cutting off access points." The U.S. government Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national security body, has for months sought to reach a national security agreement with ByteDance to protect the data of more than 100 million U.S. TikTok users, but it appears no deal will be reached before year's end. WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

ByteDance finds former TikTok employees hacked data of two US journalists

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ByteDance finds former TikTok employees hacked data of two US journalists