Report Claims Huawei More Vulnerable To Security Hacks Than Rivals

According to new research by a US-based cybersecurity firm deemed “credible” by top government officials, Huawei Technologies is far more vulnerable to security risks than its rival companies.

The report, published on the Wall Street Journal, claims that “telecommunications gear from Huawei is far more likely to contain flaws that could be leveraged by hackers for malicious use than equipment from rival companies”.

It found that over half of the nearly 10,000 firmware images encoded into more than 500 variations of enterprise network-equipment devices tested contained at least one such exploitable vulnerability.

Findings of the report were compiled in the new report and submitted to senior officials in multiple government agencies in the US and the UK in recent weeks.

Trump administration officials have since come out and said the report “further validated their policy decisions towards Huawei”.

“This report supports our assessment that since 2009, Huawei has maintained covert access to some of the systems it has installed for international customers,” said a White House official.

“Huawei does not disclose this covert access to customers nor local governments.

“This covert access enables Huawei to record information and modify databases on those local systems.”

Huawei has emerged recently as a central fixture in the growing rift between the US and China over technology, especially with the approach of 5G cellular technology.

Australia has since joined other countries concerned about Huawei’s security, effectively banning it from the country’s 5G rollout.

A Huawei official said the company welcomed independent research that could help improve the security of its products but couldn’t comment on specifics about the report.

“Without any details, we cannot comment on the professionalism and robustness of the analysis,” the Huawei official said.

Finite State’s report was done pro-bono and the company’s chief executive Matt Wyckhouse said, “the best way to inform policymakers of these issues is to make them public”.

However, the company’s website has no copy of this research for public examination.