Huawei in hot water again, Britain warns of ‘new significant technical issues’ it poses
DHARAMSALA, 4 April 2019: Britain has cautioned new significant technical issues in Chinese tech giant Huawei and expressed its reservations on the latter’s ability to address issues.
“Further significant technical issues have been identified in Huawei’s engineering processes, leading to new risks in the UK telecommunications networks,” the MailOnline reported citing a government report.
While Britain’s Defence Secretary has expressed deep concerns over Chinese tech giant Huawei’s involvement in providing the 5G network in Britain earlier in December last year, now the UK’s oversight board joined the chorus and warned of ‘new significant technical issues’ in Huawei technology which could put UK telecoms networks at risk, reports MailOnline.
According to the report, the UK’s oversight board, which includes officials from GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has stated that the Chinese telecom giant had made ‘no material progress’ to address issues first raised in its last report, a year ago.
“It will be ‘difficult to appropriately risk-manage future products in the context of UK deployments until Huawei’s software engineering and cybersecurity processes are remediated,” it added.
The development came amid concerns about the company’s involvement in 5G telecoms infrastructure across the world over claims the firm could be compelled to assist in Chinese state intelligence work. Though Huawei has denied any improper links to the Chinese government or that it is collecting data on their behalf, it thrust into the international spotlight after the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on December 1.
Huawei is said to have close links with the Chinese military, as its founder Ren Zhengfei was a former officer at the People’s Liberation Army, besides selling cell phones, it also sells equipment that is part of the global roll-out of the fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks which experts say could be used for undetected surveillance or intelligence gathering by the communist regime.
Further, Huawei has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. Apart from the UK, other countries such as the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand have already expressed grave concern over the Chinese tech giant as a potential risk to national security.
Meanwhile, six retired US military leaders have issued a statement calling on America’s allies to ban Chinese technology giants from outfitting their 5G networks, citing “grave concerns” over security.
“As military leaders who have commanded US and allied troops around the world, we have grave concerns about a future where a Chinese-developed 5G network is widely adopted among our allies and partners,” the statement released by the former top US generals on Wednesday said.
