Economy Huawei News & Discussion: BT Will Build UK’s Emergency Network with "High-Risk Vendor" Huawei

[Michaelangelo]

if anything the backdoor was prob a selling point to the govt.

 

[spamking]

Was it significantly cheaper than other bids?

The problem that Germany, France, the U.K, Italy, et al, are facing now is that they have already built their 4G infrastructure on Huawei equipments, which makes it more economical to simply upgrade to Huawei's 5G. An evolution, rather than revolution.

If they were to switch to the 5G offerings from Nokia or Ericsson now, then they will have to spend billions more to replace a lot more equipments.

At the end, it will be Security vs. Bottom lines.

I honestly don't remember if their bid was significantly cheaper, but I do believe they were the low bidder . . .

 

[spamking]

if anything the backdoor was prob a selling point to the govt.

I was told several of their cameras were in use at various military installations . . . and they discovered the back door. That's supposedly what prompted the ban.

 

[ShinkanPo]

I was told several of their cameras were in use at various military installations . . . and they discovered the back door. That's supposedly what prompted the ban.

The Chinese discovered the backdoors to the military installations?

They better lock those doors all the time now.

 

[spamking]

The Chinese discovered the backdoors to the military installations?

They better lock those doors all the time now.

Ha . . . I think someone within the DoD found it or something . . . . it's been a while I honestly can't remember what started it all.

 

[ShinkanPo]

Ha . . . I think someone within the DoD found it or something . . . . it's been a while I honestly can't remember what started it all.

Since the UK is a major part of NATO I wonder what are the ramifications for UKs relationship with other members. Since NATO shares sensitive info to other key members.

 

[JDragon]

Since the UK is a major part of NATO I wonder what are the ramifications for UKs relationship with other members. Since NATO shares sensitive info to other key members.

Maybe not NATO but for Five Eyes it should have definite consequences.

 

[JonesBones]

Mike Pompeo, the former head of the CIA, will make clear that giving Huawei access could throw US-UK technology partnerships into doubt.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...-theresa-may-against-giving-huawei-5g-access/

 

[NoDak]

Mike Pompeo, the former head of the CIA, will make clear that giving Huawei access could throw US-UK technology partnerships into doubt.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...-theresa-may-against-giving-huawei-5g-access/

As it should.

 

[ShinkanPo]

As it should.

What where they thinking? why give a major geopolitical rival some advantage and also pissoff your allies in the process?

In my country the whole administration and their party are so pro China they are being labeled as the China party already even the so called oposition is complicit.

The Chinese company is planed to help our government set up a security and surveilance system.

Oh wait it may be dangerous to speak againts the CCP in the future.


The Chinese are really expanding I wont be surp

 

[Arkain2K]

Since the UK is a major part of NATO I wonder what are the ramifications for UKs relationship with other members. Since NATO shares sensitive info to other key members.

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander: "If Berlin picks Huawei for 5G, NATO will not communicate with Germany"
MAR 14, 2019

NATO forces would stop communicating with their German colleagues if Berlin teams up with Chinese firm Huawei for its super-fast 5G telecom infrastructure, US General Curtis Scaparrotti warned on Wednesday.

"We're concerned about their telecommunications backbone being compromised in the sense that, particularly with 5G, the bandwidth capability and ability to pull data is incredible," Gen Scaparrotti, Nato's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told the House Armed Services Committee.

"If it also is inside of their defence communications, then we're not gonna communicate with them" across those systems, the general said. "And for the military that would be a problem."

The US and several other Western nations, fearful of the security risks posed by the company closely tied to the Chinese government, have shut Huawei out of tenders for the development of fifth-generation, or 5G, networks.

Those next-generation systems will bring near-instantaneous connectivity that can enable futuristic technologies such as self-driving cars.

Gen Scaparrotti's comments came during questioning about trade talks in Europe, and Germany in particular, with Chinese telecom groups.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported the US had warned Germany about future "information sharing" if it uses "untrusted vendors" in its 5G infrastructure.

The newspaper said the US Ambassador to Berlin, Richard Grenell, had sent a letter to German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier warning that in such a case, the US could scale down intelligence and other information exchanges.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin would consult Washington over using technology made by Huawei, although "we will define our standards for ourselves."

Huawei has strenuously denied allegations its equipment could be used for espionage.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/go...r-5g-nato-will-not-communicate-us-general?amp

 

[Andy Capp]

This is particularly amusing, consider that the U.K's own Oversight Board has just concluded that Huawei's equipment carries "significant security risks".



Other European countries are mostly along the line of "yeah, there are risks, but we could probably mitigate them with strong oversight, plus their equipments are so cheap!"

Well, good luck with that, boys. If you want to play with fire, it's best to have that ointment ready.

So, should they ban American equipment as well?
"A claimed deliberate spying "backdoor" in Huawei routers used in the core of Vodafone Italy's 3G network was, in fact, a Telnet-based remote debug interface.

The Bloomberg financial newswire reported this morning that Vodafone had found "vulnerabilities going back years with equipment supplied by Shenzhen-based Huawei for the carrier’s Italian business".

"Europe's biggest phone company identified hidden backdoors in the software that could have given Huawei unauthorized access to the carrier's fixed-line network in Italy," wailed the newswire.

Unfortunately for Bloomberg, Vodafone had a far less alarming explanation for the deliberate secret "backdoor" – a run-of-the-mill LAN-facing diagnostic service, albeit a hardcoded undocumented one.

"The 'backdoor' that Bloomberg refers to is Telnet, which is a protocol that is commonly used by many vendors in the industry for performing diagnostic functions. It would not have been accessible from the internet," said the telco in a statement to The Register, adding: "Bloomberg is incorrect in saying that this 'could have given Huawei unauthorized access to the carrier's fixed-line network in Italy'.

"This was nothing more than a failure to remove a diagnostic function after development.""

"Characterising this sort of Telnet service as a covert backdoor for government spies is a bit like describing your catflap as an access portal that allows multiple species to pass unhindered through a critical home security layer. In other words, massively over-egging the pudding.

Many Reg readers won't need it explaining, but Telnet is a routinely used method of connecting to remote devices for management purposes. When deployed with appropriate security and authentication controls in place, it can be very useful. In Huawei's case, the Telnet service wasn't facing the public internet, and was used to set up and test devices.

Look, it's not great that this was hardcoded into the equipment and undocumented – it was, after all, declared a security risk – and had to be removed after some pressure. However, it's not quite the hidden deliberate espionage backdoor for Beijing that some fear.

Twitter-enabled infoseccer Kevin Beaumont also shared his thoughts on the story, highlighting the number of vulns in equipment from Huawei competitor Cisco, a US firm:"


"For example, a pretty bad remote access hole was discovered in some Cisco gear, which the mainstream press didn't seem too fussed about. Ditto hardcoded root logins in Cisco video surveillance boxes. Lots of things unfortunately ship with insecure remote access that ought to be removed; it's not evidence of a secret backdoor for state spies.

Given Bloomberg's previous history of trying to break tech news, when it claimed that tiny spy chips were being secretly planted on Supermicro server motherboards – something that left the rest of the tech world scratching its collective head once the initial dust had settled – it may be best to take this latest revelation with a pinch of salt. Telnet wasn't even mentioned in the latest report from the UK's Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre, which savaged Huawei's pisspoor software development practices.

While there is ample evidence in the public domain that Huawei is doing badly on the basics of secure software development, so far there has been little that tends to show it deliberately implements hidden espionage backdoors. Rhetoric from the US alleging Huawei is a threat to national security seems to be having the opposite effect around the world.

With Bloomberg, an American company, characterising Vodafone's use of Huawei equipment as "defiance" showing "that countries across Europe are willing to risk rankling the US in the name of 5G preparedness," it appears that the US-Euro-China divide on 5G technology suppliers isn't closing up any time soon."

Now, I'm not against holding China and companies originating there to account, but the same ought to be done for American companies.

 

[BarryDillon]

if anything the backdoor was prob a selling point to the govt.

It's certainly a big selling point for me.

 

[ShinkanPo]

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander: "If Berlin picks Huawei for 5G, NATO will not communicate with Germany"
MAR 14, 2019 06:32 AM

NATO forces would stop communicating with their German colleagues if Berlin teams up with Chinese firm Huawei for its super-fast 5G telecom infrastructure, US General Curtis Scaparrotti warned on Wednesday.

"We're concerned about their telecommunications backbone being compromised in the sense that, particularly with 5G, the bandwidth capability and ability to pull data is incredible," Gen Scaparrotti, Nato's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told the House Armed Services Committee.

"If it also is inside of their defence communications, then we're not gonna communicate with them" across those systems, the general said. "And for the military that would be a problem."

The US and several other Western nations, fearful of the security risks posed by the company closely tied to the Chinese government, have shut Huawei out of tenders for the development of fifth-generation, or 5G, networks.

Those next-generation systems will bring near-instantaneous connectivity that can enable futuristic technologies such as self-driving cars.

Gen Scaparrotti's comments came during questioning about trade talks in Europe, and Germany in particular, with Chinese telecom groups.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported the US had warned Germany about future "information sharing" if it uses "untrusted vendors" in its 5G infrastructure.

The newspaper said the US Ambassador to Berlin, Richard Grenell, had sent a letter to German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier warning that in such a case, the US could scale down intelligence and other information exchanges.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin would consult Washington over using technology made by Huawei, although "we will define our standards for ourselves."

Huawei has strenuously denied allegations its equipment could be used for espionage.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/go...r-5g-nato-will-not-communicate-us-general?amp

Scary the future implications of 5g and the Chinese weaponizing 5g is really worrisome.

I could imagine Chinese aligned countries gonna be difficult to subvert and will make the corrupt regimes they support have stronger grip to power by virtue of a full surveilance state assisted by the Chinese.

And if there any dissenters they just might find themselves in their driverless cars being driven by General Tso's boys to the edge of a clift.

 

[NoDak]

I almost forgot how anti-CCP @BarryDillon is. <3

And if there any dissenters they just might find themselves in their driverless cars being driven by General Tso's boys to the edge of a clift.

<45>

 

[ShinkanPo]

I almost forgot how anti-CCP @BarryDillon is. <3

Is Barry BomerThomson?

<45>

 

[Arkain2K]

The Huawei Saga Reaches Germany
By Björn Alexander Düben | May 03, 2019

It is within this context of increasing concerns about the involvement of Chinese enterprises that the global controversy surrounding Huawei began to erupt in Germany as well, leading to heated debates about the company’s involvement in the construction of a new 5G mobile telecommunications grid. That became the dominant China-related talking point in the German media throughout the first months of 2019. As Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government became a major policy concern in North America, Washington began to urge its allies to avoid integrating Huawei technology in their critical national infrastructure. The U.S. government dispatched officials to Berlin in early 2019 to dissuade it from including Huawei in 5G development, and Washington’s ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, warned that the United States would scale back data-sharing with German security agencies if Huawei got a role in the 5G project. While the German government dismissed Grenell’s demands, the concerns about Huawei’s inclusion in the development of 5G infrastructure are widely shared in German official circles, particularly in the intelligence community.

In late 2018, the German government had stated that there is no concrete legal basis for completely or partially excluding any particular company from the construction of 5G networks in Germany, nor were any such measures planned. By January 2019, however, the government was conducting a “reassessment” of the charges against Huawei. Germany’s intelligence and security agencies provided a new threat assessment regarding Huawei, and they explicitly advised the government to exclude the company from the development of 5G networks, which they described as a highly sensitive part of the country’s critical national infrastructure. Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), warned that the Chinese government could use Huawei technology for espionage and surveillance purposes through so-called electronic “backdoors” and could even compromise the networks’ safety of operations by installing hidden “kill switches” to effectively disable the 5G infrastructure. According to Gerhard Schindler, a former BND director, “such a scenario is definitely conceivable” and Germany would not be prepared for – or able to react to – such a situation. Schindler declared that “China is an authoritarian regime where security interests have absolute priority” and that these interests are being “ruthlessly implemented, domestically and externally.” According to the BND, particular risks emanate from the unprecedented degree of interconnectedness between 5G and other sectors of the critical national infrastructure. The agency also pointed out that China’s security laws provide Beijing with a practically limitless ability to request data and information that Chinese companies (including private ones) have gathered abroad.

In the wake of these warnings, the German government progressively hardened its stance toward Huawei’s 5G involvement. In January through March, it organized various high-level meetings to debate the issue. Germany’s largest telecommunications companies warned against the exclusion of Huawei, claiming that such a move could delay the construction of the 5G network by several years and would be extremely costly. Nonetheless, the Ministries of Interior and the Economy prepared a modification of the German telecommunications law to ensure that components by foreign companies and providers can only be included in 5G network development if they can demonstrate that they are free from government influence and that foreign governments cannot obtain access to their products.

Overall, the German government never managed to adopt a unified stance, and it presently remains highly divided on the issue of whether to exclude Huawei from 5G development. The intelligence services remain adamantly opposed to Huawei’s involvement – a position that is broadly shared by the Foreign Ministry, as well as prominent parliamentarians such as Norbert Röttgen, the former deputy leader of the CDU and current chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, who has likened Huawei’s capacity to potentially disrupt Germany’s critical infrastructure to the threat posed by nuclear weapons. The Interior Ministry has been more ambivalent in its stance on Huawei, while the Ministry of Economics and the Office of the Chancellor have primarily been focused on trying to avert any disruption of the good economic relations with Beijing and on fulfilling longstanding election pledges to rapidly extend Germany’s digital infrastructure at an acceptable cost.

Since the auction of spectrum licenses to build 5G networks was set to begin on March 19, leaving little time for further deliberation, Merkel and Altmaier ultimately announced that Germany would not bar Huawei technology from the process. Instead, the government increased security requirements for all 5G vendors and mandated that mobile providers can only use critical network equipment after scrutiny and certification by Germany’s federal cybersecurity agency and that “core components may only be procured from trustworthy vendors and manufacturers.” While it remains unclear what the exact implications of these new framework rules will be, some observers interpret them as implying that Huawei could be allowed to supply 5G masts but not components in the center of the 5G network. Senior U.S. government representatives have even claimed “that a rigorous application of those frameworks … will lead inevitably to the banning of Huawei” from 5G development in Germany, since the company would be unable to meet these high security standards which are de facto incompatible with China’s national intelligence law.

At present, the controversy over Huawei’s commercial activities in Germany continues, while new macro-economic initiatives such as the National Industry Strategy 2030 have yet to come to fruition. The broader EU-wide projects to restrict China’s economic influence likewise remain at an early stage and are bound to progress slowly through the EU’s sluggish decision-making apparatus. What is certain, however, is that Berlin has grown increasingly wary of Beijing’s intentions and concerned about its business practices, raising questions about how amicable Sino-German trade and investment cooperation can remain in the future. While Huawei’s involvement in 5G infrastructure development has been condoned for the moment, it has proven extremely controversial in Germany, as the company has become a focal point of the West’s growing suspicion toward Beijing. Simultaneously, pressure to reduce Huawei’s involvement in critical infrastructure development has also grown within NATO and the EU, where initiatives to restrict the company’s operations in Europe are likewise gaining momentum. There is therefore much to indicate that Beijing’s relations with Berlin will only become bumpier in the near future.

https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/are-the-gloves-coming-off-in-china-germany-economic-relations/

 

[NoDak]

The Huawei Saga Reaches Germany
By Björn Alexander Düben | May 03, 2019

https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/are-the-gloves-coming-off-in-china-germany-economic-relations/

 

[ShinkanPo]

Yeah wtf is happening? The Chinese really charmed a lot of countries..

Hey I got charmed too you know...


But damn on serious note what the heck is happening they bribe Germans too?

 

[Arkain2K]

China's little bro in Southeast Asia decided to deploy their 5G network without Huawei tech:

VIETNAM RACES TO LAUNCH 5G NETWORK, BUT CHINESE TECH GIANT HUAWEI NOTABLY LEFT OUT OF PLAN
BY LE HONG HIEP | 3 MAY 2019​

A woman talks on her mobile phone in Hanoi.

Vietnam may soon become one of the first Southeast Asian countries to go 5G, with local telecoms firms racing to develop the country’s first nationwide network. But the cutting-edge advancement is likely to come with one notable absentee: Chinese tech giant Huawei.

The country’s biggest carrier, Viettel, announced on April 25 that it had successfully tried out a 5G broadcast station in Hanoi with a speed of 600 to 700Mbps, reportedly on par with Verizon in the US. A full 5G network test is expected this month, Viettel said, with services offered to customers soon afterwards if successful.

Notably, Viettel claimed it had developed its own core technologies for 5G networks, including chips and devices. In fact, the firm said it was aiming to manufacture 80 per cent of the core network infrastructure needed for the network by 2020. The rest will come from suppliers.

But Viettel said it did not and would not use Huawei equipment, even for its current 4G networks.

Meanwhile, MobiFone, the other Vietnamese mobile carrier licensed for a 5G network trial, has chosen to go with Samsung’s technologies. Vinaphone, another major telecoms firm likely to receive a 5G trial licence soon, has already entered into a partnership with Nokia.

Huawei’s absence in Vietnam’s 5G market is in stark contrast with the approach of neighbours like the Philippines and Thailand, where telecoms companies continue to use the Chinese tech firm’s gear, despite security concernsbeing raised in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the US.

It seems, for now, that the Southeast Asian nation’s decision not to go with Huawei may have been derived from a combination of economic and security considerations.

Firstly, as China remains a substantial security threat for the country, Vietnam has good reason to avoid using telecommunications equipment made by Chinese companies. Past incidents, including one cyberattack on check-in systems at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports in July 2016, raised concerns about the vulnerability of Vietnam’s critical infrastructure against state-sponsored hacks – which China is frequently accused of.

Choosing to use self-developed equipment or those from non-Chinese suppliers will be a safer option for Vietnam. As acknowledged by a Viettel representative in an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review, Viettel decided to develop and produce core network equipment “to avoid the risk of being unable to support the safety and security of the national telecommunications network”.

Second, Vietnam wants to develop its own hi-tech industries, in the hope of achieving a new industrial blueprint. And allowing the use of inexpensive Huawei equipment would not only undermine such a vision, but it would also discourage local firms from developing indigenous technologies and may well lead to further dependence on Chinese ones.

Against this backdrop, Viettel’s plan to develop its own 5G chips and core network infrastructure is well justified.

Viettel operates Vietnam’s biggest mobile network and 10 other networks in overseas markets. So developing its own 5G technology promises to give it a competitive edge both domestically and abroad.

Finally, Vietnam has been making efforts to grow security and defence ties with the United States, and heeding warnings about Huawei’s technology will send a positive message to Washington about the two countries’ common security interests and help build trust. In turn, Vietnam’s future security cooperation with the US and its allies looks positive, especially in the area of intelligence sharing.

But there remains the issue of cost. Whether Viettel and other local firms can successfully develop their own 5G technologies and produce reliable equipment at an affordable price remains to be seen.

In the short term, given Viettel’s limited technological capabilities, cooperation with non-Chinese suppliers will be critical for the deployment of Vietnam’s 5G networks, but they will have to come with security assurances to justify not using Huawei.

In the long term, if Vietnamese firms fail to develop their own 5G infrastructure, it is likely the higher cost for deploying non-Chinese technology will cause Hanoi to rethink its approach, perhaps by allowing Huawei to provide noncore equipment.

For now, Huawei appears to be losing out to its competitors in Vietnam.

Le Hong Hiep is a fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on the ISEAS website.

https://amp.scmp.com/week-asia/opin...-5g-network-chinese-tech-giant-huawei-notably