According to a report from The Times, a British newspaper, the CIA, in part of an information sharing program with the “Five Eyes” security council, shared information regarding ownership of Huawei. The CIA has accused Huawei of receiving funding from China’s National Security Commission, the People’s Liberation Army, and a third, unnamed, branch of the Chinese government.
For some time, the U.S. government has reported that governments should not trust Huawei hardware or software for infrastructure for government projects. However, they did not give proof to back up their statements publicly. U.S. intelligence agencies only shared this information with the other security organizations from the countries in the Five Eyes network, Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. Now, a source from one of those organizations has leaked a few details, and it could spell trouble for Huawei infrastructure projects worldwide.
Britain’s Problem
In the U.K., Huawei is quite popular. The government decided to use Huawei hardware and software to expand their wireless cellular service and bring the country 5G cellular internet. The country conducts yearly security audits, and Huawei hasn’t improved or shown improvement since the country found security vulnerabilities last year. That, combined with news of Huawei’s ownership, should trouble every British citizen.
Unfortunately, they’re likely preoccupied with Brexit.
The U.K. would have to make sweeping changes to their infrastructure in a short amount of time, something they seem incapable of doing currently.
Huawei’s Defense
Huawei is still suing the U.S. government over security guidelines. The U.S. government cannot purchase Huawei devices or do business with organizations that use Huawei devices. Their case will likely be thrown out, as the U.S. government won’t risk security assets by showing the full details of their evidence against Huawei.
Huawei does not deny the report. They have stated that “Huawei does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources.” Though, that’s telling. They didn’t try to deny the accusations, merely tried to distract from them by pointing out that the source was anonymous.
Zen Rhengfei founded Huawei after his time serving in China’s army as an engineer. Canadian authorities recently arrested his daughter, Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO. Canada will extradite her to the U.S. to face crimes of wire fraud and violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran. Huawei claims these arrests are politically motivated, but the evidence is substantial.
Source:
- Kanishka Singh, Nick Macfie, Reuters