Huawei has got a major relief, coming in from the British Government. The relief has a lot of weight, considering it is coming in from one of the closest political ally of Huawei’s most vocal critic — the US.
Britain is a key part of the process to redemption for Huawei. To back up protests against the spy claims, specially made by the US, Britain has managed to confirm that there indeed is no evidence of surveillance in Huawei’s products.
Ciaran Martin, head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said Britain had yet to decide on its security policy for national 5G networks, but that Huawei equipment was subject to detailed oversight and strict government controls over where it was used.
“Our regime is arguably the toughest and most rigorous oversight regime in the world for Huawei,” Martin, whose NCSC is part of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence agency, said at a cybersecurity conference in Brussels.
When asked later whether Washington had presented Britain with any evidence to support its allegations, he told reporters: “I would be obliged to report if there was evidence of malevolence … by Huawei. And we’re yet to have to do that. So I hope that covers it.”
Martin said it was for the U.S. government to comment on what information it had about the company but added: “From our point of view … if you look at the detailed paper we’re publishing, we set out the way we manage the risks.”
Due to the Britain’s membership in the 5 eyes intelligence sharing group, any decision made by Britain pertaining to allowing Huawei to continue building their 5G network will be under close supervision by the other nations involved as well.
Although all seemed well with regard to Britain and Huawei, there have been some issues with the company after it was found that technical and supply chain issues with its equipment caused the risky exposure of national telecom networks to security risks.
Another snag that hit Huawei, was when Vodafone decided to pause its deployment of Huawei equipment until Western Governments gave full clearance to Huawei.
Martin said: “As we said then, and repeat today, these problems are about standards of cyber security; they are not indicators of hostile activity by China.”
“We will monitor and report on progress and we will not declare the problems are on the path to being solved unless and until there is clear evidence that this is the case,” he said.
“We will not compromise on the improvements we need to see from Huawei.”
1 comment