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Why Huawei Gives the US and Its Allies Security Nightmares (technologyreview.com)
Perhaps the most insightful piece that sums up why the U.S. and its allies are apprehensive of using Huawei's products. Six reasons, we are just highlighting the pointers, click on the source story to read the description:
1. There could be "kill switches" in Huawei equipment.
2. ... That even close inspections miss.
3. Back doors could be used for data snooping.
4. The rollout of 5G wireless networks will make everything worse.
5. Chinese firms will ship tech to countries in defiance of a US trade embargo.
6. Huawei isn't as immune to Chinese government influence as it claims to be.
1. There could be "kill switches" in Huawei equipment.
2. ... That even close inspections miss.
3. Back doors could be used for data snooping.
4. The rollout of 5G wireless networks will make everything worse.
5. Chinese firms will ship tech to countries in defiance of a US trade embargo.
6. Huawei isn't as immune to Chinese government influence as it claims to be.
Every point made here is just as true from the other side too. I know China is investing heavily in developing high-end microprocessor designs and manufacturing capability, but shouldn't it make strategic sense for them to also spend as much money as it takes to purge their country of Microsoft? Windows Update could be easily repurposed for espionage, and even if the US government doesn't control it yet, they could surely do so if they situation was desperate enough. I'd expect China to be throwing huge piles of money into transitioning away from Windows entirely for all military and government functions, and all major companies too. They even tried with Red Flag Linux, and that ended badly. China is striving for hardware manufacturing capability, but seems to be unconcerned over software.
That's why we are to be afraid. Guess what, your mobile mandatory location identifying device (as required by US law) is a leash.
1. There most likely are "kill switches" in $USBRAND equipment.
2. ... That even close inspections miss.
3. Back doors are already being used for data snooping.
4. The rollout of 5G wireless networks will make everything worse.
5. US firms will ship tech to countries wherever the fuck they want regardless of anything else.
6. $USBRAND isn't immune to US government influence, period.
I fail to see a problem with Huawei in particular.
pretty much, everyone in the intelligence industry worry about the stuff they are doing to other countries being done back.
Look at what they are saying that other places are likely doing, and you get a pretty good list of what they are doing to other places.
7. Huawei phones lack the backdoors that allow the US intelligence community to spy on its own people.
That's it, really. They don't trust us, not at all. You really have to wonder why? Why do they feel the need to spy on us and know what we're thinking? Our elected government made this illegal, and the intelligence community promptly broke the law and lied about it.
On March 12, 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress that intel officials were not collecting mass data on tens of millions of Americans. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden soon revealed material that proved Clapper's testimony false: The government had been gathering and storing data from ordinary Americans' phone records, email and Internet use.
They don't feel any obligation to us at all. It's OK if they break the laws we passed with our elected government and lie to our faces - they don't feel safe if we can keep secrets from them. Fuck democracy, they have wars to start. If we all started buying Huawei they would feel very unsafe indeed.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
If you're the average American (or European, for that matter), you're living paycheck to paycheck, your perspective of retiring at the end of your useful shelf life (~65, give or take) is practically zero, your children's chance of a useful education is degrading (...if you're European; it's already essentially zero of you're US), and the only perspective your offspring have in their life is to live through & possibly, maybe, try to clean up the mess the big winners of your generation are creating for all of us.
In that case, China is not your primary enemy. Your own government is, together (or better: led by?) those who Have. That's what you should be worrying about primarily.
Cisco does exactly the same.
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3. Back doors are already being used for data snooping.
Hell, FRONT doors are already being used for data snooping. Well you clicked "I agree", right?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
And still absolutely nobody has asked themselves how Turkey happened to end up with audio recordings of the Kashoggi murder... While everyone was busy saying "oh dear that's terrible", I was thinking "lol they're going to have to change the bugs in the Saudi consulate now".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
What US products? We have systematically destroyed 99% of our production capacity for the components that go into cell phones by allowing corporations to fire everyone and move production to other countries which allow workers to be so badly treated that they're slaves in all but name only.
The only part the USA plays in making a cell phone is some manufacturers assembling the parts here in order to get an "Assembled in the USA" label. We can't make enough of the components for any cell phone to qualify as "Made in the USA".
Speaking as someone from western Europe, the problem with Huawei is that in geopolitical terms China is not an ally by any stretch of the imagination. The USA are. If there's any serious trouble, we do not have to worry about the USA shutting us off unless they decide at some point that we are no longer allies. The biggest worry is that equipment from the US has some backdoor (installed on behest of the government or whatever) that the Chinese can exploit.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
They are not "slaves in all but name only". The working conditions are pretty good in a lot of those Chinese factories, the workers make enough money to send home to their rural families, and despite the sensationalist claims, suicide rates are roughly equivalent to the non-factory worker population. I would say that it is far more likely that your vegetables were picked by someone in the USA that is functionally a slave or that your clothes are made by some child in a sweatshop than your phone is made by a "slave". Indeed, one of the reasons why the work has moved to China is the presence of so much SKILLED labour all concentrated in one place.
China isn’t perfect, the factories often try to get away with shit, not everyone there is acting in good faith...but I could say exactly the same thing about a lot of places in North America. I think the real fear here is that despite everything, we AREN'T any better than the Chinese, and it offends our moral sensibilities that we might not have any moral high ground to stand on when it comes to workers and their rights.
I am not making excuses for Huawei, and we shouldn't make them for Microsoft, either. A few months ago, my computer was one of the many that de-authorized by Microsoft because of the bug in their servers, only for a day, but Windows 10 appears to have a kill switch.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM