According to our political thespians, they have discovered a risk which US faces in relying on foreign telecommunications companies which use technologies and infrastructure control mechanisms that could, in theory, cause harm to us. The committee of politicians and political corporate appointees, apparently became aware of the danger sometime in late 2010 or in 2011.
ATS compiled and presented the facts in early 2008.
Speaks volumes, doesn't it?
In a report published today, the US permanent select committee on intelligence says the two firms represent a clear and present national security risk because of their alleged links with the communist government. Committee members fear that "backdoor" and monitoring facilities could be secretly present in their equipment, allowing, for instance, industrial designs to be stolen and copied before they are patented or registered as copyright.
Considering that "backdoor" firmware and hardware was already a known situation years before this news item surfaced makes me tend to think it is a political bolstering point for the political reality show....
Of course the media has a ready distraction....
A draft version of the report was quoted by Reuters as saying that Huawei and ZTE "cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence" and so represent a national security threat, ...
Journalism contending "Protectionism" vs. Corporate media offering a "Political expedient" distraction. Why could I think that? Well maybe because they knew in early 2008... and didn't care until the month before the elections.
Meanwhile we are left with the troubling possibility - that a statement such as ....
... Huawei and ZTE "cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence" and so represent a national security threat...
.... might have validity.
Now - interestingly - the article mentions something that I thought was equally noteworthy:
Indeed, aside from US-owned Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, the telecoms switching and routing arena is a field where many large players are foreign.
It was Cisco products that were "counterfeited" which had the "backdoor" problem reported in 2008....
I think these professional political club members in the "Intelligence Committee" need to be less political and more professional....
www.newscientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)
