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FCC Chief Cites Concerns on Spy Threats From Chinese Telecoms Firms (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, in a letter sent to lawmakers earlier this week (but released just now), said he shares the concerns of U.S. lawmakers about espionage threats from Chinese smartphone maker Huawei and plans to take "proactive steps" to ensure the integrity of the U.S. communications supply chain. From a report: Pai said he shares concerns over the "security threat that Huawei and other Chinese technology companies pose to our communications networks." Pai said he intends to take action in the "near future," but offered no specifics. Pai's letter follows the introduction of legislation by Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio in February that would block the U.S. government from buying or leasing telecoms equipment from Huawei, the world's third largest smartphone maker, or Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp, citing concerns the companies would use their access to spy on U.S. officials.

33 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Proof? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Is there any proof to go along with this claim, or is it just their gut feeling?

    1. Re:Proof? by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

      There's already allegations that Kaspersky anti-virus company was part of the Russian effort to support Trump, as Kaspersky is Russian-owned. It's just like somebody from California trying to influence a Massachusetts election.

      China is often a thorn in our side, expecting there to be more farm land even though we keep building new datacenters.

    2. Re:Proof? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      There's already allegations ...

      Allegations are not evidence, and Russia is not China.

    3. Re:Proof? by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

      They're looking for proof, but it's more than a gut feeling.

    4. Re:Proof? by postbigbang · · Score: 1

      There's no evidence. Nothing.

      My guess as to why: no vendor wants to reveal what's in their secret sauce firmware and OS modifications, or even the OS itself (which varies about once per calendar quarter). The US probably has its own methods for implanting location-based stinkware that Huawei and ZTE (and soon Motorola/Lenovo??) do as well.

      Otherwise, it's a market shutdown to benefit Samsung and Apple, who largely lead the world outside of China Inc.

      And as such, it could be just another shell tossed in the trade wars.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    5. Re:Proof? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      but it's more than a gut feeling.

      Citation needed. So far there has been no evidence presented.

    6. Re:Proof? by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

      Could easily be part of the on-going trade war that the USA is waging against China. Claiming national security is a strategy that both the USA and China use to cut out each others' companies from competing with their homegrown/alternatives, e.g. the Chinese govt. switching from Windows to Ubuntu.

      --
      Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
    7. Re:Proof? by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

      The only firmware in typical computers is the BIOS chip, which was turned over to Gates/Jobs/Linus years ago by vendors that completed the 1-uping of BIOS.

      It's been shown in court cases that police can snoop on anti-virus running computers by simply requesting help from the anti-virus maker for that system. They close everybody else's back doors, but leave one open for themselves.

    8. Re:Proof? by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

      The investigation's over... here's the penalty.

  2. Re:Who tf does he think he's fooling by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

    Verizon gets all sorts of default phone company hate in the East/Central regions of the USA. AT&T has similar problems in the West, as the current holder of the brand use to be called "SBC".

    FIOS never made it to my street at my former home because a Comcast employee filled the conduit they laid with coax after they allowed to expire the time to build their network. On the flip side, he filled part of his basement with cable hubs... therefore able to give out faster-than-LAN-can handle access for everybody on the street.

  3. How long until... by Type44Q · · Score: 1
    How long until all of our machines are locked-down and we're prevented from running unsigned code? You know it's coming.

    "Chinese military-grade Black Ice, baby."

    1. Re:How long until... by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

      Ever since XP's days of ActiveX-in-IE, they've been locking down ways for code to run without coming from the official development tools, and requiring code to be approved for sale by OS's favorite app store. To put in simply, they're squeezing out the Open Source solutions. No-money projects are near dead.

    2. Re:How long until... by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      No, Microsoft is not squeezing out the Open Source solutions, they're annexing them, vis-a-vis a Linux environment that runs under Windows. Give 'em enough rope, and they'll have everything running subordinate to Windows, and they'll push the idea that you don't need anything other than Windows -- therefore there won't be anything other than Windows. At that point Microsoft hegemony will be complete; we'd be living in a Microsoft world, where your computer is de-facto owned and operated by Microsoft, because they'll have complete control of it, and you just 'get' to use it -- if they allow you to. Believe it: the ultimate monopoly. Not like they haven't tried to create monopolies before.

    3. Re:How long until... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      To put in simply, they're squeezing out the Open Source solutions.

      I have a Macbook, and work with Windows as well. I have no problem whatsoever running Open Source apps on either.

      Phones are more locked down, but that is nothing new. If you want to make an Open Source app and distribute it through the Apple or Google app stores, no one is stopping you, and there are plenty of them there.

    4. Re:How long until... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Go visit a college campus. It is 90% Macbooks. The only people running Windows are the business majors.

    5. Re:How long until... by YuppieScum · · Score: 1

      Phones are more locked down, but that is nothing new. If you want to make an Open Source app and distribute it through the Apple or Google app stores, no one is stopping you...

      Apple phones are, unless jail-broken, completely locked down, likewise Windows phones from version 7 onwards. Android phones can install apps from several different app stores, or from anywhere else if you change a simple setting.

      If you want to make an Open Source app and distribute it through the Apple or Google app stores, no one is stopping you...

      Unless, of course, the app store owner doesn't like your app for some reason (how's that torrent client on your iPhone?)

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      This sig left unintentionally blank.
    6. Re:How long until... by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

      In the latest Mac OSX, see how there's a dot in System Preferences that can lock out unsigned code, or require apps come from the Mac App Store. How long until that dot becomes mandated?

    7. Re:How long until... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Apple phones are, unless jail-broken, completely locked down ...

      ... unless you use Xcode, and then you can run anything you want.

      Also, the Apple app store contains plenty of free open source apps. They are not "locked out". There is a walled garden, but they are inside the wall.

      Apple is not part of any vast conspiracy to destroy Open Source. Microsoft may be, but they no longer have the market power to pull off something like that. This isn't the 1990s.

  4. almost like by bobmajdakjr · · Score: 1

    it is almost like best buy saw this coming...

    1. Re:almost like by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      it is almost like best buy saw this coming...

      One of the very few times their management has been ahead of the game on something.

  5. Can't make these things here... by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

    Nobody likes having a copper factory in their neighborhood, there's risks of lead and gold being leaked in the the environment. Everybody loves their phones, but the makers have to make them somewhere else.

    Silicon Valley's greatest developments were the hubs, switches and routers... but they never converted into smartphones, those factories are now all overseas.

  6. Re:It seems cybernetic war. by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

    Back doors are not viruses, they're security holes that need to be enforced by firewalls. Don't expect anti-virus alone to keep you safe from these things.

  7. The order to be concerned? by bobstreo · · Score: 1

    US domestic TLA agencies

    US ISP/Wireless "services"

    China

    North Korea

    Russia

    The last 3 are interchangeable

    1. Re:The order to be concerned? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Actually the FCC are just being an idiotic bunch of butt brains. You do not talk threats without evidence, that is bullshit, stupid, ignorant arrogant bullshit. The proper framing of the discussion is security risk. The security risk is never ever targeted at any one, just an analysis of the risk of say, all cell phones being bricked by any one at any time, country, company or individual and securing against that risk.

      In order to properly audit provision of services, hardware and software, they must be done locally, because when not done locally, you can not audit them, do random spot checks or any of the other expected functions of government to secure an essential services.

      Stop being fucking morons USA, use the right diplomatic speech, handle these subjects in the proper manner, get rid of the idiotic corporate stooges and get people who can do the job properly. You do not ban foreign players, you simply state in order to minimise risk of essential services they most be provided locally, by local firms, so that they can be effectively secured and audited, to ensure reliability of that essential service, simply zero foreigners allowed in essential services.

      Picking on one country without evidence and that means real evidence tested in a court of law, is just horribly lame arrogance and really stupid. They do this all the time, and now nobody believes any of the shit the US government comes up with. No matter the claim, response is always, did they prove it in a court of law, no, meh, they are fucking lying yet again.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  8. And people are surprised? by Dynedain · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So we offshored all our application development to India, all our electronics manufacturing to China, all our security development to eastern Europe and Russia, and now we are worried about our gadgets being compromised?

    Color me surprised.

    --
    I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
    1. Re:And people are surprised? by sharkbiter · · Score: 1

      Yup. Nothing like a little misdirection to take the "gullible" public's mind off of the real issues while HE sells the very foundations of their rights and privileges from underneath them. I got several calls from telemarketers today, I wonder who it was that enabled them?

  9. Start with the chips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So, if you put your tin foil hat on and decide to eliminate influence from China in your cell phone's supply chain,
        where do you start?

    Apple uses Foxcon in C.
    TSMC is in Taiwan, C

    So, what is this current drama about?

  10. Re:Who tf does he think he's fooling by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 2

    It's all the Yellow Peril's fault. Pay no attention to the (US) Facebook or (UK) Cambridge Analytica, everything's the fault of the Chinese.

  11. This is wonderful! by sillivalley · · Score: 1

    How is he (or his successor) going to feel when they see this same language in Chinese, or other language, as an assault on the entry of U.S. designed products into other markets?

    The U.S., under more rational administrations in the past, has decried "non-tariff barriers to entry" against U.S. products and services, such as the language now being used by the FCC.
    What's good for the goose is mighty damn fine for the gander -- and I hope you like the taste of it, because it's going to be rammed down our throats (or into other orifices) by other nations barring U.S. products from their markets.

  12. Good luck with that... by YuppieScum · · Score: 2

    So, you need:

    1. No use of Chinese (or perhaps East Asian) fabs for any of your silicon.
    2. No involvement of any companies with any Chinese (opEA) ownership in the manufacturing processes.
    3. No involvement of any Chinese (opEA) nationals in any of the hardware or software design processes.

    In fact, how about "only security-cleared US nationals and wholly-US owned corporations wholly based in the US be permitted to be involved in telecoms kit, from raw material production to installation and configuration."

    That might work, and would require major investment in the US, and loads of new jobs, too.

    However,campaign contributions might be a little light for a while...

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    This sig left unintentionally blank.
  13. Re:It seems cybernetic war. by YuppieScum · · Score: 1

    And just hope your firewall doesn't also have a back-door...

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  14. Half of Slashdot to buy Huawei by mi · · Score: 1

    Half of Slashdot will now go out of their way to buy Huawei — just to spite Ajit Pai.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  15. I smell a market by some+old+guy · · Score: 1

    1. Birth a startup up in SoMa to build a secure all-in-house hardware and software phone/tablet for the gov. Valley angels and unicorns rejoice. Pelosi gets pork.

    2. Put the chip fab in Rochester, NY so Schumer gets pork.

    3. Put assembly plant in Louisville so McConnell gets pork.

    4. Market it as "made is USA". Trump gets ego gratification.

    5. Profit!!!

    --
    Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.