Web User - UK (2019-05-29)

WHY IS5G SO IMPORTA NT?

Discuss Huawei and 5Gwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 29 May - 11 June 2019^39

Huawei

sanctions.The US alleges Huawei has
beenstealing trade secrets,too.

How much of this is just
paranoia?
China’s National Intelligence Law, which
came into effect in July 2017, obliges
citizens and organisations in Chinato
‘spy’ whenrequired. Article 14 of the law
says “state intelligencework organs,
when legally carryingforth intelligence
work, may demand thatconcerned
organs,
organizations
or citizens
provide
needed
support,
assistance,
and
cooperation”.
Such
language
indicates a
potential that
Huawei could
be ordered
to
collaborate
with China’s
national
intelligence efforts. Itwas alsorather
intriguing that Beijingwas furious and
threa tened “grave consequences”over
Meng’s arrest, suggesting close ties. “This
hurt thefeelings of Chinese people,” said
China’s official news agencyXinhua.

Is there evidence of any
wrongdoing?
Huawei maintains that it is an employee-
owned independentcompany, but there
have nevertheless beenreports of
security-bypassing ‘backdoors’ in
networks that use Huawei-supplied
equipment.There was a suggestion that
Vodafonefound vulnerabilities in an
Italian network 10years ago thatcould
have granted Huawei ac cess to its fixed-
line network. Areport by Bloomberg also
said Vodafone asked Huawei to remove
such backdoor access in home internet
routers butfound, when checking later,
that this hadn’t been done.

Sounds dodgy.Case closed?
Well, no. An updated report suggested
that the vulnerabilitywas downto an
undocumentedTelnet service and, while
it was a security risk thatVodafone had
to ask Huawei to remove, the problem
wasn’t as bad as it first appeared:
computers and networkscouldn’t be
accessed via the internet aswas
originallyreported.Even so,telecom
companies across Europe are currently
reviewing Huawei’s equipment andBT

announced last December that it had

beenremoving Huawei technology from

key areas of its 3G and 4G networks

since 2016. It said, however, that thiswas

merely part of its effortsto standardise

BT’s networkfollowing its purchase of

the mobile phone carrier EE in 2015.

Vodafone is goingto put its use of

Huawei on holdfor the time being, while

O2 andThree say they willcontinueto

use thecompany.

Does “non-core” involvement

with UK 5G limit the danger?

Alex Younger, chief of the Secret

Intelligence Service(or MI6), says 5G

networks are trickyto monitor and, ina

speech lastyear, Aust ralia’s spy chief

Mike Burgess, said that“a potential threat

anywhere in the [5G] network will bea

threatto the whole network”.The UK’ s

NationalCyber SecurityCentre (www.

ncsc.gov.uk) sa ys there arewaysto

mitigate such security threats, but in July

2018, a UK governmentreport writtenby

the Huawei Cyber SecurityEvaluation

Centre (bit.ly/hcsec4 76 ) believed

shortcomings in Huawei’s engineering

processes provided only limited

assurance.

What happens if the Huawei deal

is stopped?

Vodafone and other operators suggest

that preventing Huawei’s in volvement

would increase the time andcost of

deploying 5G, potentially putting the UK

behind other parts of theworld by at

least acouple ofyears. Itwould, however,

ease tensions with other nations in the

Five Eyes intelligence alliance – the US,

Aust ralia, NewZealand and Canada.This

alliance allows the UKto access

information that the EU isexcluded from,

and helps makefor better security.

And what does Huawei say?

Huawei sa ys countries have nothingto

fear and that it takes security seriously.

On itswebsite (www.huawei.com), the

company’s UK CEO JerryWang writesa

strong defence: “Huawei has been the

subject ofrelentless innuendo,” he sa ys.

“The company has been targetedby a

sustained campaign of ill-informed

accusations that its involvement in 5G

infrastructure somehow poses a threatto

the nation.”Wang sa ys transparency is

the bestresponse whenface d with

suspicion, hostility and doubt, and that

“the only sureway to win trust is through

openness, honesty andby proving that

there is nothingto hide”.

STOP PRESS:As we were goingto pres s

with this issue, news emerged that

Google has blocked Huawei’s ac cess to

Android updates, following orders from

the US governmentto blacklist the

company. Google said its Playstore will

continueto work onexisting Huawei

phones but future devices will lose

access to popular apps including Play,

Maps and Gmail.

If you want a faster and morereliable

mobile internet, then 5G is the solution

you’ve beenwaitingfor. The fifth-

generation wirelesssystem is capable

of speeds upto 20 timesfaster than

4G, and it willrevolutionise theway

we use our mobile devices,reducing

latency to mere milliseconds and

opening up the potentialfor the

Internet ofThings,

whichcould

massively

improve securitysystems andvehicles.

With widercoverage, stable

connections and lesscongestion, 5G is

set to be hugely popular. It will carry

reams of data – hence the needto

ensure that it is as secure as it can be.

Reports of backdoors in Huawei equipment

were later revealedto be inaccurate

Huawei denies any improprietyover 5G

and justwants everyoneto get on nicely

There arefears that
Huawei workerscould
be forced to aid Chinese
stateintelligence