

US lawmakers say Huawei poses security threat - chermanowicz
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390443615804578041931689859530-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwNzAwODc3Wj.html

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acabal
That's pretty rich, maybe they should ban AT&T as a security threat for spying
on Americans (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A>) or hell, why not the
NSA too (<http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/>)

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mercurial
"Congress has no intention to destroy American jobs by outsourcing citizen
monitoring to foreign countries. Eavesdroppers are the backbone of this
country!"

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twelvechairs
Huawei were also banned earlier this year from bidding for parts of
Australia's National Broadband Network, following advice from Australia's
secret service organisation (ASIO) who work closely with the Americans. I wish
ASIO was just as concerned about my communications being monitored by the USA
(or for that matter, themselves)...

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Matsta
Australia sucks America's dick more and more every day. It's one of the main
things I hated when I lived there.

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berntb
Get used to it. Pro-US attitudes should be more prevalent in all of Asia the
more aggressive China becomes, since the local countries will need the help.

(Yes, there is some irony to be found here...)

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lrem
Somewhat related: Huawei has supported the equipment to build broadband
networks in some poorer countries essentially for free. If someone wants
details, I can bug a Maroccan friends for reference.

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daliusd
I wonder what is hidden behind word "free". It is not unknown fact that China
is getting oil and other natural resources in exchange of infrastructure in
some African countries. In this case it might be special market conditions.
I'm guessing only but I really don't believe in generosity of corporations (be
it Chinese, US or any other country).

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hucker
I guess what lrem is implying is that this equipment is "payed for" by
allowing the Chinese to spy on the citizens/government/corporations of the
recipient country through backdoored Huawei equipment as hinted to by the
article.

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lrem
I'm not implying that. It might be one reason for the giveaway. But I can
think of others, like proving to someone that can actually pay that they're
able to connect a country without things blowing up. This might be pretty
important in such a market. Or, even simpler, they just want to introduce some
kind of vendor lock-in.

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StavrosK
If the Chinese government wanted, couldn't they bug iPhones just as easily?
They're manufactured in China, after all...

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trotsky
The kind of interception abilities they're worried about come from
intentionally introduced flaws in the software (or, less commonly, in an ASIC
or similar). This is why cisco equipment can be manufactured in china and not
cause worries (to the US) but the counterfeit cisco gear is a serious concern.
Additional bugs or chips that didn't belong are relatively easily detected -
nation states play at things like intentionally weakened random number
generators or side channel leakage.

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StavrosK
Ah, right, I guess that's the salient point: Additional chips are easily
detected. Thanks for the clarification.

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ChuckMcM
Perhaps they would be more accommodating if the US Gov't hadn't asked our
networking and phone companies to put surveillance backdoors into gear [1] for
better wire tapping. This seems to be a standard deal, the Greeks were all up
in arms because of it (in their case it was the Vodaphone network [2] which
had state sponsored built in holes.

The could take the high road and order Cisco and AT&T to make their gear un-
tappable so that they would be sure no Nation-state could use it to spy on us,
of course that would make them sad.

[1]
[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48695618/ns/technology_and_scien...](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48695618/ns/technology_and_science-
security/t/fbi-surveillance-backdoor-might-open-door-hackers/)

[2]
[http://www.salon.com/2012/05/06/surveillance_state_democracy...](http://www.salon.com/2012/05/06/surveillance_state_democracy/)

[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_wiretapping_case_2004%E2%...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_wiretapping_case_2004%E2%80%932005)

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kefs
For more info, watch last night's airing of 60 minutes.. which included a full
15-minute hit piece on Huawei..

Article: [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57527441/huawei-
probed...](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57527441/huawei-probed-for-
security-espionage-risk)

Video: <http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7424702n>

More info: <https://www.networkworld.com/community/node/81554>

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suprememoocow
Uh, can you spell P.R.O.T.E.C.T.I.O.N.I.S.M?

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DominikR
That must be it, mixed with some paranoia, since I didn't see them show any
proof for those allegations. They should just ban Apple products in China.

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suprememoocow
The Economist did a good, balanced piece on this subject:
<http://www.economist.com/node/21559922>

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batgaijin
Wonder when we'll see a protest against _NSAKEY...

