Angus Grigg reports:
Chinese phone company Huawei has been linked to a major data breach in Africa casting doubt on the company’s claim there is no evidence to back up national security concerns which could see it banned from the rollout of 5G networks in Australia.
The revelations centre on an investigation by French newspaper Le Monde, published in January and later confirmed by The Financial Times, which contend confidential data from the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia was sent to Shanghai every night for five years.
Criticism of Huawei in UK publications appeared today. CNN reported that:
Top UK security officials say they can only provide “limited assurance” that telecom equipment provided by Huawei poses no threat to national security.
The Chinese company, which sells smartphones and telecommunications equipment around the world, is monitored in the United Kingdom by a government oversight panel called the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre.
In an annual report published on Thursday, the panel warned that “shortcomings in Huawei’s engineering processes have exposed new risks in the UK telecommunication networks.”
Huawei’s response was…. accepting of the concerns. According to Reuters, they stated, in part:
“The Oversight Board has identified some areas for improvement in our engineering processes,” a Huawei spokesman said.
“We are grateful for this feedback and are committed to addressing these issues. Cyber security remains Huawei’s top priority, and we will continue to actively improve our engineering processes and risk management systems.”
Huawei says no inspection has ever found any backdoor vulnerabilities in its equipment. It says it is a private company not under Chinese government control and not subject to Chinese security laws overseas.