Britain can handle the security risks involved with using mobile networks made by China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), its cybersecurity chief said on Wednesday, adding to a growing debate among countries on whether the company should be banned, as the US wants.
It is important to have “sustainable diversity” in the supply of telecommunications equipment, British National Cyber Security Centre chief executive officer Ciaran Martin said, adding that his agency could handle the challenges involved in monitoring suppliers who might not be considered trustworthy — a hint at Huawei.
Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of switching gear for phone and Internet companies, has faced rising scrutiny over US allegations that it could be forced by the Chinese government to provide access to consumer data on its networks.
As countries roll out new high-speed 5G mobile networks, they are seeking suppliers and the issue of whether to ban Huawei has become a heated debate.
Some frame it as a cold evaluation of the technical risks. Others see it as part of a broader tussle between the US and China for technological dominance.
The US has effectively blocked Huawei for years and is accusing China of stealing technology from foreign companies.
US government officials, including US Vice President Mike Pence, publicly warned European allies against using Huawei during a visit last week.
Authorities and telecoms in countries such as Germany, Norway and the Czech Republic have been reassessing Huawei’s role in 5G networks, while Australia, New Zealand and Japan have already moved to curb the use of its gear to varying degrees.
China has stridently defended Huawei, considered a crown jewel in its push to become a global technology power, and denounced security concerns as part of a US-led plot to restrain the country’s development.
“The United States and a few of its allies are using double standards and deliberately misleading the public on the issue,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said on Monday.
“It’s hypocritical, immoral and unfair bullying behaviors,” Geng said.
Experts say Huawei networks are generally cheaper than those of competitors and are of a high quality, making it a difficult decision for governments and telecoms to shun the supplier altogether.
Banning Huawei could also delay the rollout of 5G networks, which are considered necessary for the next generation of Internet-connected things, from self-driving cars to smart factories.
The British government is due to complete a review of its policies on the safety of 5G next month or in April.
Martin said no decisions have yet been made and “everything is on the table.”
Since 2010, the British government has run a cybersecurity evaluation center for Huawei equipment, which Martin said was part of “the toughest and most rigorous oversight regime in the world” for the company.
“It is proving its worth,” he said, according to a transcript of a speech he gave at a conference in Brussels.
The cybersecurity center in July identified technical issues in Huawei’s engineering processes that could make it less safe.
Huawei last month said that it would take three to five years to fix the problems.
Martin said the issues his agency identified relate to cybersecurity standards and are “not indicators of hostile activity by China.”
Mistakes in software are the biggest issue for cybersecurity, more so than the risk of a foreign government getting backdoor access, he told reporters.
Huawei competes with a few big rivals, notably Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson, to supply equipment for 5G networks.
Martin said it is important not to let the telecom equipment supplier market shrink too much.
“Any company in an excessively dominant market position will not be incentivized to take cybersecurity seriously,” Martin said, adding that such a company could be a “prime target for attack for the globe’s most potent cyberattackers.”
In a sign of Britain’s division over 5G, a security think tank warned the same day against using Huawei gear.
“Allowing Huawei’s participation is at best naive, at worst irresponsible,” the Royal United Services Institute said in a report, which cited factors, including the difficulty of finding hidden “back doors” in software.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six