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India Bars ZTE, Huawei, Others From Sensitive Government Projects
hypnosec writes "The Indian Government has decided it won't be using telecom equipment from international vendors, and has barred all such foreign companies from participating in the US$3.8 billion National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) project — a project aimed at bringing high-speed Internet connectivity to the rural areas of India. The DoT has decided that it will be going ahead with 100 per cent domestic sourcing and has released a list of certified GPON suppliers. This decision comes after the research wing of the ministry, C-DoT, advised the telecom department to bar Chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei, keeping in line with a similar decision by the U.S. In an internal memo, the research body advised the department that both these Chinese companies are a security threat to the telecom world."
Okay, I'm not a big conspiracy theorist. But if there isn't a good chance of a backdoor in their software, I'm a monkey's uncle. Aren't these companies partly owned by the People's Liberation Army?
Oh, yeah! Wise guy, huh? Woob woob woob woob! Nyuk! Nyuk!
Beats the current carrier pidgeon system dead into the ground.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
That a large shout goes out to China saying "We dont Trust you" from the rest of the world.
Yet the rest of the world still insists on using the large, cheap, suicidal and robotic workforce of China to produce it's consumer goods!
Just wait until the Water Cooler starts listening in on your breaktime chats about the latest developments in secret tech.... ;)
Did the govt also consider components(chips, circuitry, software) in locally sourced hardware also are not made outside India or are open-source. India does not have expertise in chip manufacturing except potato chips.
I support that.
I think the US should try to get its key tech from local companies, too. and their suppliers and their suppliers.
we are *too* globalized. somehow, we went too far in that direction and people are just mindlessly forging forever forward and not stopping to think.
countries are not permanent friends. its unwise to be too global.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Because if you do, purple monkey dishwasher!
To put a witty saying into 120 characters, jst rmv ll th vwls.
"In an internal memo, the research body advised the department that both these Chinese companies are a security threat to the telecom world"
You mean becoming completely dependent on another country, a specific company, etc. for resources, especially defense critical resources, can be a 'security threat'? Really?
No shit. I know I left that clue bat laying around here somewhe....
So who are the Indian equivalents of Cisco, Avaya, Juniper, Brocade, et al? Yeah, they do have domestic Telecom companies like Airtel, Reliance Communications, but others? Only one I can think of is iBaton (Apple hasn't sued them for using I before the product name) which makes networking equipment like switches & routers. Otherwise, everything there is the usual DLink, Linksys, Cisco and so on.
It makes more sense if the Indians were to just ban Chinese companies, like Huawei and ZTE from the action
exactly what will happen. infact even the software will be packed as is without even testing. this is the case with all the indian handset manufactures who sell samsung salaxy s2 or higher spec android phones and tabs at 1/5 of the cost.
Even without backdoors or intentional bugs that can be exploited to gain access, Huawei engineers hired/coerced by the government would be very useful in finding exploits in Huawei products.
Source code is only useful if you can be certain that the compiled code comes from the source code you reviewed, similarly design diagram is only useful if you are certain the actual hardware follows the diagram given to you; and this will need to be checked for every unit you bought.
It isn't a coincidence that India agrees with the US on building out by using local talent. Europe will follow suit in each nation state, and South America will do the same. China's stranglehold on cheap materials/labor is no longer the driving factor in manufacturing. The top manufacturers in China are working on investing in foreign lands to avoid losing their present contracts. Over time, they'll lose them. It's an economic/intelligence/political trifecta approach to breaking China's dominance on flooding world markets and thus driving down competiting economies. In short, US, Euro and other nation states corporations realize that game is up. They know the import/export tariff imbalance days are over.
We hear national security and we all start thinking espionage and conspiracy theories. Truth is that economic losses can be just as devastating. All that expensive equipment needs regular servicing to function properly. All China would have to do is bar Huawei from offering its services in India and all that vital equipment is rather quickly going to turn into very expensive junk, leading to downtime and huge losses for whatever services rely on them. In its current spat with Japan, China proved more than willing to use economic warfare in disputes.
I have to call BS on this one. Wiring by itself is not an active component. So, one could cause copper wire to act like an antenna by intentionally compromising the shielding, but that's it (short of including digital components in the connectors or something, but they would still need power from somewhere. Anyway I don't consider that a 'bug'). So, assuming you compromised the shielding, if the signal being transmitted through the wire was of sufficient power and high enough frequency, then it would leak enough EMF to be detectable from the outside. However, that is practically useless as a tool for espionage or sabotage. Any aerospace manufacturer worth a dime is going to have specifications on wires that require proper shielding and will test wires from their suppliers to ensure that they meet this specification. I think your "friend" was making stuff up or has too much tinfoil hat in his nature.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
India needs to
* force the Chinese to build the components inside India
* limit the contract to 5 yrs
* send them packing after Indian skills can handle the work
Just like the Chinese do to western companies bidding on contracts inside China. Ask Siemens, GE, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, etc.....
It doesn't matter whether or not there IS a backdoor. All that matters is that their MIGHT be a backdoor.
Indian Dept of Telecom: We're banning Huawei on hearing reports of security concerns by the US and Australia.
US House Intelligence Committee: We're banning Huawei on hearing reports of security concerns by India and Australia.
Australian Security Intelligence Organization: We're banning Huawei on hearing reports of security concerns by the US and India.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog