Security News
Britain on Tuesday greenlighted a limited role for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in the country's 5G network, but underscored that "High risk vendors" would be excluded from "Sensitive" core infrastructure. London's decision, following a meeting of the National Security Council chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, came shortly after Brussels said it would allow Huawei a limited 5G role in the European Union.
U.K. officials are considering a proposal to allow China's Huawei to play a limited role in providing certain equipment for the country's 5G rollout, which would defy calls from the U.S. for a complete ban of telecom gear from the company, Reuters reports. Britain's National Security Council, which is chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is scheduled to meet in the coming days to decide whether to deploy Huawei equipment within the country's 5G networks, according to Reuters, which cited unnamed U.K. government sources.
Britain is expected to announce next week whether to allow China's Huawei to develop its 5G network, an official said on Friday, setting out reasons for agreeing despite US opposition. There had been speculation that Britain would allow Huawei into "Non-core" elements of the next-generation 5G mobile networks, such as antennae and base stations attached to masts and roofs.
Mike O'Malley: What enterprises and service providers are coming to understand is that 5G is going to be a huge increase in capability, both in speed and lower latency. Think about it in terms of going down the highway, where today I'm going down the highway at 60 miles an hour, and with 5G I'm going to be able to go down the highway at 600 miles an hour.
TechRepublic's Karen Roby talks with Radware exec Mike O'Malley about the growing security risks that accompany 5G for providers, smart cities, and the enterprise
They're calling on Johnson to allow them to use Huawei gear for antennas and non-core parts of their 5G mobile phone networks, the Guardian reports, noting that they could send the letter as early as this week. A secret technical assessment prepared last year by Britain's National Cyber Security Center, which is part of GCHQ and runs a center that tests Huawei equipment, reportedly concluded that the risks of using Huawei as part of the national 5G rollout, especially for non-core parts of the network, can be minimized if the process is appropriately managed.
The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses why Britain is struggling to determine whether to use China's Huawei technology in developing its 5G networks. Plus: An update on a mobile...
One gaping hole in the U.S. government's push to counter Chinese-built 5G telecommunications gear remains the lack of alternatives. For the past year, the U.S. has been pushing its allies, including the Five Eyes intelligence alliance - comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. - to not use Chinese-built networking equipment in their national 5G rollouts or any "Sensitive" networks.
Billions of internet-connected devices and the introduction of 5G are transforming the way cities and municipalities care for their citizens. Join Dave Masson, Director of Enterprise Cyber Security at Darktrace and Craig Brown, Chief Innovation Officer of the City of Westland, as they explain how artificial intelligence can detect and respond to cyber-threats targeting the public sector.
No date has yet to even be penciled in for answering a question which, while it lacks the scale of Brexit, will nevertheless also help shape the future of Britain's national security: Whether the country will allow Chinese vendors, including Huawei and ZTE, to be part of its 5G rollout. The U.S. National Security Agency's Rob Joyce, the senior cybersecurity strategy adviser to the director of the agency, said last April that any member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance - comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and U.S. - that chose to use Huawei or other Chinese vendors might no longer be trusted to receive the most sensitive intelligence.