[News] Huawei - Our Country Right Or Wrong?

[Brovion]

I'm typing this on a Huawei phone and it's great. The idea that the Chinese can somehow influence the technology death to all American imperialist running dogs is absurd.

 

[happypig]

The issue with Huawei is not harvesting of customer information but the ability to control/shutdown our networks. In 2018 there was an O2 outage caused by an expired certificate (see https://www.computerweekly.com/news...hts-importance-of-software-certificate-audits).
If a network provider had a back door into a network switch then, due to the way 5g is going to work, they could propagate rogue code throughout the network.
If you trust vendors not to include or use a back door, then everything will be fine.

 

[Gwylan]

Incredible that we don't have the ability to do this ourselves

Once upon a time we did: there was a company called Plessey that made telecoms switches, it merged with GEC to form GPT and then got taken over by Siemens, then Marconi and finally Ericsson. This was when Thatcher decided that we didn't need an engineering industry as the City was to become the driving force of the UK economy (see motor industry)

Tory MPs are wetting their knickers over this but the fact is that ripping Huawei out of existing networks would cost billions - a cost that would be passed on to users - and will also mean us lagging behind the rest of the world. There are other suppliers out there but a) they're more expensive and b) Huawei is ahead of most companies when it comes to 5G

 

[RossyG]

But a protectionist capitalist Bully Boy State is OK?

Huh?

 

[studio150]

Its all Chinese Whispers to me, which we should all get used to do, if this deal goes wrong.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I don't particularly want my data exposed to Huawei technology.

I hope you don't have a 4G phone on the EE, Telefonica, BT or Eircom networks then. Nor that you use a network at many of the UKs universities - LSE, Newcastle and Sussex being some of them. Nor the wireless in many public spaces including the Natural History Museum, BDC and Olympia. This really is a very political issue and nothing really to do with tech or security - maybe Trump could get Cisco to lower their prices. After all the standard markup is 80% profit by resellers.

 

[herecomesaregular]

One purpose of of Government is to sometimes protect The People from the selfish greed and corruption of Big Corporations.
Nowadays, it just seems that the purpose of Government is to fawn all over and cow down to the wants of big business. Sad times.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Worth a read
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Huawei

 

[TheJasperCo]

Huawei 5G, would make a good Chinese cop show

Nohwei

 

[BLOCK F]

Once upon a time we did: there was a company called Plessey that made telecoms switches, it merged with GEC to form GPT and then got taken over by Siemens, then Marconi and finally Ericsson. This was when Thatcher decided that we didn't need an engineering industry as the City was to become the driving force of the UK economy (see motor industry)

Tory MPs are wetting their knickers over this but the fact is that ripping Huawei out of existing networks would cost billions - a cost that would be passed on to users - and will also mean us lagging behind the rest of the world. There are other suppliers out there but a) they're more expensive and b) Huawei is ahead of most companies when it comes to 5G

Plessey, there's a name from the past. I worked there for a short time in the '70's down in Poole.

 

[Jim D]

The issue with Huawei is not harvesting of customer information but the ability to control/shutdown our networks. In 2018 there was an O2 outage caused by an expired certificate (see https://www.computerweekly.com/news...hts-importance-of-software-certificate-audits).
If a network provider had a back door into a network switch then, due to the way 5g is going to work, they could propagate rogue code throughout the network.
If you trust vendors not to include or use a back door, then everything will be fine.

So we go with these guys or wait a year or two until the US tech companies can catch up - and then have them do exactly the same....

 

[Gritt23]

The only "security risk" appears to really be a Trump trade war with China, so if the concerns are reliant on Donald providing accurate information, and erm, not just lying, then they are not concerns that will lose me any sleep.

 

[CHAPPERS]

[tweet]1221842546881679360[/tweet]

Worth a pop.

 

[Gritt23]

The issue with Huawei is not harvesting of customer information but the ability to control/shutdown our networks. In 2018 there was an O2 outage caused by an expired certificate (see https://www.computerweekly.com/news...hts-importance-of-software-certificate-audits).
If a network provider had a back door into a network switch then, due to the way 5g is going to work, they could propagate rogue code throughout the network.
If you trust vendors not to include or use a back door, then everything will be fine.

Are you suggesting we should be worried about a Chinese rogue abusing an opportunity to enter us through our back door?

 

[vegster]

I don't particularly want my data exposed to Huawei technology.

Beyond that, I hope the Chinese don't harvest too much from the rest of the population either - particularly any DNA data which is stored and potentially transmitted at some point. I wouldn't want them using it to build a bio weapon.

I wouldn't be too worried, Google and Amazon probably have most of your data already.

 

[Gwylan]

So we go with these guys or wait a year or two until the US tech companies can catch up - and then have them do exactly the same....

It's not like buying a printer, you're replacing the whole underlying technology.


And there's absolutely zero chance of US companies (well, there's only one in this field) catching up. The Chinese government has committed billions of dollars every year to R&D, the US spends peanuts in comparison. Huawei is already ahead of the field in 5G, the US would have go spend-crazy to catch up

 

[Westdene Seagull]

The issue with Huawei is not harvesting of customer information but the ability to control/shutdown our networks. In 2018 there was an O2 outage caused by an expired certificate (see https://www.computerweekly.com/news...hts-importance-of-software-certificate-audits).
If a network provider had a back door into a network switch then, due to the way 5g is going to work, they could propagate rogue code throughout the network.
If you trust vendors not to include or use a back door, then everything will be fine.

And other providers don't have back doors, no siree For the avoidance of doubt they DO ! Including military systems we the UK sell to other countries. We're a bit hypocritical.

 

[beorhthelm]

[tweet]1221842546881679360[/tweet]

Worth a pop.

sensible comment on the issue.

its absurd how the debate is framed, as if the government is giving Huawei access to 5G. this merely allows them licence to be used, up to the network operators whether they do. the security angle ignores they have >20% market share in 4G networks, so already widely deployed. US is wetting themselves that US providers wont get into the market, indirectly raising all sorts of questions about just how secure networks are (think about it...)

this decision is sensible, allow Huewai into the transmitters and edge devices, where they have technical/cost advantages, while not in the core network where they probably arent used anyway. keeps Chinese happy, keeps US happish, lets the networks get on with deploying.

meanwhile the question do we need 5G is missed.

 

[Palacefinder General]

Above and beyond the spying risk Johnson’s government happily ignore the human rights issue. Well done Boris, but then you’ve got where you are today by ignoring the inconvenient truths.

‘As of 2018, it was estimated that the Chinese authorities may have detained hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million, of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other ethnic Turkic Muslims, Christians as well as some foreign citizens such as Kazakhstanis, who are kept in these secretive internment camps throughout the region.’

 

[Blue3]

It's all part of the brave new world we are entering where trade deals are played off against other national interests in this case national security or USA trade deal v China trade deal what's for certain is the deals will be made by faceless unelected burocrates.

It's all change nothing changes