Chinese telcos branded national security risk for US

Chinese telcos branded national security risk for US

www.newscientist.com

After what is claimed to have been an 11-month national security investigation, a US government intelligence committee says that the nation's corporations should avoid buying telephone, internet or cellphone networking equipment from two Chinese telecomms companies, Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp, both of Shenzhen.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
FBI Fears Chinese Hackers Have Back Door Into US Government & Military
cubist.cs.washington.edu...
www.chinatechnews.com...
it.slashdot.org.../10/24/1819200

I would like to congratulate the ATS on being so far ahead of the curve in "reporting.

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)

As someone who works in the Telecom industry, I have worked first hand with Huawei. I would like to say I'm surprised, but honestly, I am not. We had a project here in the NE US to build an entire network using Huawei materials.

Once we finished our first two wireless sites, something happened, and all of a sudden, the entire project was scrapped. Did the government know something and pay to have the program squashed? This makes me wonder.

Since there is no mention of evidence by the US permanent select committee on intelligence, are we allowed to speculate as well? I speculate that US based tech companies are just as easily "influenced" by government to add back doors in order to spy at home and abroad.

reply to post by dainoyfb


The committee may have avoided any specific 'evidence' (and likely will claim it's classified) but we already know of factual and verified cases reports of such back doors being found in products from China.

The paranoid establishment may (or may not) be wrong... and it certainly bears investigation.

But I think it only matters now because they want it to become part of an "anti-China" narrative that will distinguish one candidate from another.

I also work in telecoms and I can say Huawei are simply a front for the PLA and are nothing more than patent thieves. In the late 90's, the Chinese came over to Marconi in the UK and bought some equipment off them... A couple of years later, Huawei release their own carbon copies for half the price, leading to Marconi going under (and no doubt giving Huawei the edge to also batter Nortel)

Hopefully, the EU will also take a look at these state-owned Chinese corps. This is just the latest in a long list of security hazards that working with them poses.

reply to post by Maxmars


One of the other main concerns is Chinese laws that govern Chinese business, regardless if those businesses are located in China or not. Chinese telcom companies are subject to Chinese govwernment control, which means a Chinese telcom company operating in a foreign country can be forced to turn over information to the Chinese government and must comply with it.

Its more than just backdoors and faulty technology....

So do I take my old hauwei phones to the gun range?

Is that what it has come down to?

YaY! new targets.

I have worked for telecom company as well and it is right on the money about many immigrants (mostly chinese) who are constantly inquiring and curious about anything that is discussed amongst the peers. What also fascinated me are the interns (Phd candidates) working on their thesis with joint collaboration programs with universities (funded by the telecom company) that were generally transferring so called 'white papers' freely and openly to the Universities of their pickings. On one side a huge amount of money is spent on corporate and network security while countless hours of research work funded by the telecom companies is openly transferred in the name of academia. I dont care if folks believe in 'knowledge is free' but not at the cost of someone who spent money and investments into technologies for their business purposes only to be replicated with cheaper versions of it by PRC. This is definitely not just a problem in the US but a global nuisance by the PRC.

it could all be a front for them perhaps ignoring patents and killing jobs/other international industries.

just ban the competition. dont need a legit reason. everything these days is some vague danger we are to avoid.

and how long has the us been using China's tec?
I bet its in the missiles to.