Huawei Military + Chinese Intelligence Links Exposed
How safe is Huawei smartphone and who should you believe when it comes to concerns over security and Huawei’s links with the Chinese Communist Government and their military and intelligence operations that spy on tens of millions of Chinese people, new research has revealed close links with the US Government machine.
Recently it was revealed that a study of the employment information of thousands of Huawei staff that many senior executives had deep links with the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus than those previously acknowledged by China’s biggest telecom equipment maker.
According to the UK Financial Times the findings are likely to add fuel to the debate among governments around the world over whether to block Huawei’s gear from the rollout of 5G telecoms networks for security reasons.
In Australia the Federal Government has already banned Huawei from supplying equipment to carriers for the NBN and new 5G networks but not 4G networks.
Researchers who trawled through a database of leaked Chinese CVs, found Huawei employees who appeared to be simultaneously employed by institutions affiliated with the Chinese military, others who previously worked in areas related to hacking or telecom monitoring, and still more who described their work at Huawei as linked to the Ministry of State Security (MSS), an entity involved in cyber warfare and network penetration.
Christopher Balding, a professor at Fulbright University Vietnam, and researchers at the Henry Jackson Society, a UK think-tank, identified one Huawei employee who describes himself as a “representative” of the MSS at Huawei and claims to have worked on “building lawful interception capability into Huawei equipment”.
The researchers suggest that this employee could have been involved in the alleged installation of backdoors — clandestine access points that could allow eavesdropping on sensitive communications — in a Vodafone network in Italy a decade ago that was first reported earlier this year.
Both Vodafone and Huawei said the issue was fixed at the time.
Huawei who is known for manipulating the truth said that in a preliminary investigation it had “not been able to verify any of these so-called ‘Huawei Employee CVs’”.
Observers claim the research is likely to further stir the debate over Huawei as US government officials wrangle with industry after Washington blacklisted Huawei earlier this year.
Decisions are also looming in several EU member countries, including the UK, on how to mitigate the security risks in 5G networks.
“Huawei has gone to great lengths saying they have no links with the Chinese military and security institutions,” said Prof Balding.
“The narrative they spin is false — military connections quite clearly run deep.”
