Security News
With less than three days until the inauguration of Joe Biden, the Trump Administration has reportedly revoked several licences that would allow Huawei to buy US-made tech, and plans to deny over 150 pending requests. In May 2019, the Trump Administration placed Huawei on an entity list, citing national security grounds.
Wireless carriers in the U.K. won't be allowed to install Huawei equipment in their high-speed 5G networks after September 2021, the British government said Monday, hardening its line against the Chinese technology company. The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July banned Huawei from having a role in building Britain's next-generation mobile phone networks over security concerns triggered by U.S. sanctions.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - under pressure from the opposition to ban Huawei from the country's 5G networks - refused to say Tuesday when he might make his decision, or if it would come before year's end. "We will continue to trust our security agencies and experts when it comes to making this important decision on how to protect Canadians and our businesses in an increasingly interconnected world," he said.
A Swedish court has suspended a decision banning Huawei equipment from the country's 5G network while it considers the merits of the case against the Chinese telecoms giant. Huawei said that the ban, which prohibits operators in Sweden from acquiring new equipment and gradually remove Huawei kit already installed on their 5G networks, will cause irreparable harm to its business.
Chinese telecoms group Huawei has appealed Sweden's decision to ban it from the country's 5G network for security reasons, a legal filing obtained by AFP on Friday showed. The ban, announced by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority on October 20, "Lacks legal basis, violates fundamental human rights, violates fundamental EU legal principles ... and is incorrect in substance," Huawei wrote in its appeal to PTS and the Stockholm administrative court.
Sweden is banning Chinese tech companies Huawei and ZTE from building new high-speed wireless networks after a top security official called China one of the country's biggest threats. The Swedish telecom regulator said Tuesday that four wireless carriers bidding for frequencies in an upcoming spectrum auction for the new 5G networks must not use equipment from Huawei or ZTE. Wireless carriers that plan to use existing telecommunications infrastructure for 5G networks must also rip out any existing gear from Huawei or ZTE, the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority said.
Belgium's dominant telecom operator Proximus said Friday that it will gradually replace its equipment from the Chinese manufacturer Huawei with products from Finnish supplier Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson. The sensitive decision comes at a time when the United States is heaping pressure on its European allies to shun equipment from Chinese firms in developing their 5G networks.
The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre - mostly run by GCHQ offshoot the National Cyber Security Centre, though it is also staffed by some Huawei personnel - sighed that the Chinese company has made "Limited" progress on last year's recommendations to toughen up its act. Code reviewers found "Evidence that Huawei continues to fail to follow its own internal secure coding guidelines. This is despite some minor improvements over previous years." In addition, "The Cell" said it had found more vulnerabilities during 2019 than it had in previous years - though Huawei was keen to paint this finding as "Proof the review system is working", something NCSC guardedly agreed with.
The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre - mostly run by GCHQ offshoot the National Cyber Security Centre, though it is also staffed by some Huawei personnel - sighed that the Chinese company has made "Limited" progress on last year's recommendations to toughen up its act. Code reviewers found "Evidence that Huawei continues to fail to follow its own internal secure coding guidelines. This is despite some minor improvements over previous years." In addition, "The Cell" said it had found more vulnerabilities during 2019 than it had in previous years - though Huawei was keen to paint this finding as "Proof the review system is working", something NCSC guardedly agreed with.
Hardware video encoders from multiple suppliers contain several critical security bugs that allow a remote unauthenticated miscreant to run arbitrary code on the equipment. Huawei insists the vulnerabilities were not introduced by its HiSilicon chips nor the SDK code it provides to manufacturers that use its components.