Huawei's Networking Equipment Poses A Huge Security Risk To Western States

Huawei Headquarters, Shenzen, Guandong, China,
Source: skynews.com

Huawei is a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics manufacturer headquartered in Shenzen, Guandong, China. It was a company founded in 1987, initially focused on manufacturing phone switches. It has since then expanded its business into building telecommunications networks, providing operational and consultation services and equipment both within and outside china, and manufacturing communications devices for the consumer market. 

Huawei is a business which has grown to become the world’s largest telecommunications equipment vendor and is being considered as a company with high security risks.  Huawei’s equipment being banned as nations seek to develop their 5G networks shows little signs of stopping, and western bodies including the EU and NATO have been called to establish a joint position on their security risks.

In the UK, the company’s bid to help build Britain’s 5G network was approved by Theresa May, despite warnings about the risk it poses to national security. Why wouldn’t Huawei be thought of as a high security risk to nations if not because of assessments made of China’s hostility towards Western nations.

Huawei’s equipment basically occupies every step of the network chain between our laptops and phones through to the data centers hosting the content we want to access. Huawei’s equipment is especially prominent in the parts of the network closer to the data centers although it sells laptops and phones, and it is the equipment which is raising concerns.

The company has been granted restricted access to build “non-core” infrastructure such as antennas, but will be banned from involvement in the most sensitive areas of the network with the main equipment it builds. 

The core infrastructure devices that Huawei really deals with – network switches, routers and bridges; the kit that controls how and where data is sent, touches everything traversing the internet and are critical to its proper functioning. 

Three out of the five nations (the US of A, Australia and New Zealand) in the five Eyes Intelligence Alliance have effectively prohibited the installations of Huawei equipment as part of the next generation of telecommunications equipment. While the other two members have not stated their conclusion on the issue, the UK has made the decision to allow Huawei equipment towards the edge of the network; in the radio transmitters and receivers which other companies struggle to compete with the company on and Canada is expected to state its position in the coming months. 

The restriction of Huawei’s equipment to the edges of the 5G network rather than the core data processing and handling areas is potentially significant of how National Security Council (NSC) expects these risks can be managed, although the ultimate decision was taken by the prime minister during one of the NSC meetings. 

Despite the assessment of the accusation of Huawei by the US intelligence of being funded and sponsored by the Chinese state, and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre’s statement as regards the threat Huawei posed to national security, the head of the NCSC said the UK has established the “toughest and most rigorous oversight regime in the world for Huawei” and would be capable of managing the risk the company poses. 

The company has consistently insisted and affirmed its consumers and the world at large in the face of criticism, that it has never been brought to evidence that its equipment is more faulty or suspicious than that of its competitors. 

Even if there is no evidence of bad action on behalf of the company, Western security officials have been especially wary of China’s foreign policy, including its alleged ambitions to use business ties in foreign countries as elements of warfare. 

Asides the foreign policy, the founder’s connections with the military and the communist party, alongside those of its senior executive raises security concerns for foreign customers.

 

Networking equipment
Source: skynews.com

Huawei’s networking equipment could potentially facilitate spying, although it has not been detected doing do. Any evidence that Huawei equipment monitored or manipulated data it routed would lead to an immediate response from all companies using it. 

The question and worry posed now is if the West can include Huawei’s equipment within critical national infrastructure and be confident it would not be used against them.