Former head of NSA and CIA, Michael Hayden has accused Huawei for spying for China, the country where it belongs. He detailed his views in an interview to the Australian Financial Review.
He said that the views were developed when Huawei was trying to make a mark on the American telecommunication market and presented a briefing paper. While it didn’t say anything wrong, it wasn’t enough to convince Hayden to grant Huawei the rights. He said that the burden was now on Huawei to prove that it isn’t on the wrong side.
“God did not make enough briefing slides on Huawei to convince me that having them involved in our critical communications infrastructure was going to be okay.
This is not blind prejudice on my part. This was my considered view based on a four-decade career as an intelligence officer.” Michael Hayden
Huawei, though has called the remarks “defamatory” and has asked for evidences. The company’s global cybersecurity officer, John Suffolk has denied saying: “Huawei meets the communication needs of more than a third of the planet and our customers have the right to know what these unsubstantiated concerns are. It’s time to put up or shut up.”
Security issues haven’t been a new issue for Huawei, as the company has had a long list history of lawsuits regarding it. In only 2012, it was declared by US as a “national security threat” and this latest incident of this line surely isn’t be doing its image any good.
Americans
know what they have been doing with rest of the world when they sell technology,
that is why they suspect Chinese now!
So what do we do? Our phone exchanges, mobile companies etc etc use Huawei everywhere. Are our communications safe?
Seriously, the only solution is end to end encryption. The software is there, but it isn’t easy to use. Online opinions (which match what I have seen) are of one say: if the user has to do anything to make his communcations secure, they won’t do it. Even if it is just to check a preference in their browser or website. They won’t do it. If it’s not automatically encrypted, it won’t happen. That is why Facebook, Gmail etc now default to using https instead of http.
Also, time to ask again: when will propakistani switch to https?
if there was something as such, the world is not crazy Shahid.
everyday software developers try to make their software crack/hack proof but maximum a month there is crack for every software.
same goes for hardware, take network locks on phones for example.
do you know that even Google has been partially hacked quite a few times.
all that because every system is reverse engineered and when there are flaws they are used by hacker and hobbyists. so unless Huawei has a concealing method out of the world, it is hardly possible
“everyday software developers try to make their software crack/hack proof”
Not true, and also irrelevant. Everyday software developers SIMPLY DO NOT CARE ENOUGH ABOUT SECURITY. There are so many flaws that every few months there is a new update of WordPress. Why? security.
A few programmers care a lot of security. For example, postfix author cares a lot about security and postfix has very few hacks over the past 15 years. It is designed for security. Most people do not think about security when they write their programmes or websites.
Again, the key here is END TO END encryption. If you have a website, does it use SSL by default? If you have an application on your mobile phone, does it use SSL by default? Look at for example the pknic site, it default login is NOT secure but you can click on a link to get secure login. Imagine, how many people click on that link? Why is it not default?
Of course if someone roots the phone they can snoop on the traffic. If someone breaks into the server somehow they can collect data. But making the connection between application and server or browser and server secure will drop most attackers.
security updates come because nothing is ever perfect, if security can be so good why are there not one but continuous series of updates as flaws are being found.
as for https, yes it is far more secure than http which kind of not secure at all. it should be made default.
Only time will tell us the real impact of this influx of Chinese companies in Pakistan.They are not well entrenched only in Telecom but in defence ,energy ,petroleum etc sectors .One thing which people working for Chinese organizations have repeatedly shared is relying on corruption as a tool by chinese organization to win the projects.
yes, if we are celebrating missiles and other technology that is 100% built by China and our so called scientists and hero are nothing but a bunch assh-les than it is a concern.
But if we do not only relay on China or other foreign technology and we do examine the technology before putting it into place than it shouldn’t be a concern.
ZTE was previously alleged by US amd allegation were proved absolutely wrong and baseless, now Huawei
America is bitching and moaning about others, why not talk about PRISM, under which America is spying everyone, everything and everywhere it is possible for them.
An unofficial statement from former assh-le proves nothing, it is just continuation of bitching and moaning that they do since forever.
No one proved wrong about ZTE. How can you prove wrong? Did they look at source code for ZTE equipments??? If not, there’s no other way.
try this http://www.eweek.com/networking/huawei-zte-china-strike-back-at-us-spying-claims/
ZTE has even filed a case against some US senators for impacting its repute and market
There’s nothing in there about proving allegations against ZTE wrong. Do you really not understand what “proof” means?
If I give you a box and tell you to connect it between your phone line and your telephone and I tell you it just makes your voice sound better but does not record it, how will you know for 100% certainty that it does not record your conversations? What will you accept as proof? My statement or a case against you in court??? Or actual inspection of the hardware/software?
hey, don’t take it too personal first of all.
Huawei, ZTE or US, none of them profiting you nor me.
definitely the inspection is the best option but what is not the best option is to say without inspection, oh this thing is recording my conversations.
as for spying, maybe you agree with me when I say biggest spy in present world is US itself. Google, MSN, Yahoo, Facebook and all others as such are their Spying Tools. But if you disagree, I suggest you learn about PRISM. I am from Germany, rumors are that US is spying on Germany’s government offices. Not just Germany but this is an Issue in European Parliament. Having said that,
I do not say that ZTE and Huawei and surely clean but just follow where the dust is coming from.
Pakistan has required local ISPs to track email sent since 2004 or earlier. Why care about NSA? did you ever hear of NSA sending someone to kidnap Pakistanis? I am sure you’ve heard stories of enforced disappearances by our own government agencies. How many has Chief Justice tracked down in the past years? In other words, do you worry about NSA more than locals? I don’t.
In fact, it goes beyond one company. See http://www.afr.com/p/technology/spy_agencies_ban_lenovo_pcs_on_security_HVgcKTHp4bIA4ulCPqC7SL
Banned from secure networks since 2006.