Huawei: the United States has evidence that the firm spies for the Chinese government

Huawei has again received new accusations from the United States. The US government claims to have discovered backdoors in 4G network equipment provided by the Chinese group since 2009. These backdoors would allow the firm, as well as the Chinese government, to spy on Internet users.

The American intelligence community ensures that Huawei has already used the backdoors placed in its network equipment to collect sensitive data, report our colleagues from the Wall Street Journal. Initially, access to these back doors is only reserved for the police under very specific conditions, notes the media. Huawei, like all equipment manufacturers, is in fact forced by law to put backdoors for authorities. Legally, an equipment manufacturer does not have the right to access it.

“We have evidence that Huawei is secretly able to access sensitive and personal information in the network infrastructures that it manages and that it sells all over the world” assures Robert O’Brien, advisor at national security of the U.S. These backdoors also allegedly allowed the Chinese secret service to steal confidential information. Accused of collusion with Beijing, Huawei was also blacklisted in May 2019. Since then, the manufacturer has been banned from the American market and cannot use technology from the United States.

Huawei: The U.S has provided evidence to the U.K and Germany

The United States Intelligence Community claims to have sent evidence of Huawei’s abuses to Germany and the United Kingdom in late 2019. For the past few months, Washington has been trying to convince allied countries to exclude Huawei from the deployment of 5G. Despite the pressure from the Trump government, the UK has authorized Huawei’s 5G equipment on its territory. Restrictions have nevertheless been put in place. Huawei will be confined to the least critical equipment on the network, and its infrastructure will not represent more than 35% of the 5G network.

For its part, Germany recently confirmed that it had received “clear and direct evidence” against Huawei. The documents, relayed by German media, prove that “Huawei has cooperated in a proven way with the Chinese security authorities”. For now, Berlin has not yet decided on the fate of Huawei. A compromise is currently on the negotiating table. It aims to intensify surveillance on the Chinese equipment supplier while allowing the firm to actively participate in the deployment of 5G. We will tell you more as soon as possible on the subject. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to give your opinion in the comments below.