The United Kingdom has slammed Chinese telco giant, Huawei, for failing to make “material progress” in addressing alleged security flaws.
In its annual report the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) oversight board asserts the company’s telecom equipment presents “significant” security risks.
Commentators claim the news may notably impair Huawei’s chance of contributing to the UK’s 5G network.
The overnight board affirm it can only provide “limited assurance” that risks from Huawei telco equipment can be “sufficiently mitigated long-term.”
Whilst the Chinese giant has continued to refute concerns, UK security officials have also identified new technical issues over Huawei’s engineering processes.
“These findings are about basic engineering competence and cyber security hygiene that give rise to vulnerabilities that are capable of being exploited by a range of actors,” reads the report.
Whilst falling short of declaring a ban, UK officials add it’s difficult to “appropriately risk-manage future products” until engineering and security risks are properly addressed.
The news follows the Australia government’s ban of Huawei and ZTE from the local 5G network build.
Thus far, Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand and the United States have taken some level of action towards reducing Huawei’s involvement in sensitive telco infrastructure.
