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US Tells Germany To Stop Using Huawei Equipment Or Lose Some Intelligence Access (theverge.com)

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the United States has told Germany to drop Huawei from its future plans or risk losing access to some U.S. intelligence. The U.S. says the Chinese company's equipment could be used for espionage -- a concern that Huawei says is unfounded. "The Trump administration has been pressing allies to end their relationships with Huawei, but Germany, moving ahead with its plans, has not moved to ban the company from its networks," reports The Verge. From the report: According to the Journal, a letter sent from the U.S. Ambassador to Germany warns the country that the U.S. will stop sharing some secrets if it allows Huawei to work on its next-generation 5G infrastructure. The letter, according to the Journal, argues that network security can't be effectively managed by audits of equipment or software. While the U.S. plans to continue sharing intelligence with Germany regardless, the Journal reports, officials plan to curtail the scope of that information if Huawei equipment is used in German infrastructure.

17 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Buy American or else! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nice country you've got there, would be a shame if something were to happen to it...

  2. Recommendations? by patrick.kursawe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What else? Maybe Cisco? https://www.tomshardware.com/n...

    1. Re:Recommendations? by chill · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ericsson or Nokia would be my guess. Both are major telecom manufacturers with a heavy investment in 5G. Both are European companies.

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  3. Re:Ok, bye bye intelligence access by freax · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is obviously true. We shouldn't be naive about the Chinese.

    And I agree. Let's get the CCC involved. Let's use reproducible builds for the source code. Let's put the SoCs and chips under an electron microscope. Let's let the EU institutions fund such analysis and research in foreign hardware.

    We have plenty of money and if not we can let the ECB print the money for this.

    However. Let's not let the Americans tell us with whom we do business and with whom we don't.

    We will do business with China.

    Full stop.

  4. Why? by idji · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why doesn't anyone talk about the NSA's known actions to install physical and software backdoors in American hardware, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., and that Huawei has never been shown to do that?
    This looks like a Trump MAGA Tamtrum to protect Cisco, etc, and wage a useless trade ware.

    1. Re:Why? by _merlin · · Score: 4, Informative

      That story isn't credible, and no-one has produced a photograph of the chip.

    2. Re:Why? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's always perplexing to see Trump Derangement Syndrome posts that both give Trump imaginary infinite power and cunning and call him stupid.

      The President is just a figurehead. Obama's NSA spied on Angela Merkle's phone calls and they want to keep doing that. With the CIA's abysmal track record it's hard to imagine the US has anything worth offering that is worth Germany relinquishing its sovereignty.

      Why the heck aren't they funding a jobs program to build an open source telephony platform on top of OpenSwitch?

      Germany used to be known as the country of first-rate engineering - they ought to leverage their latent genetic advantage. And tell the NSA to pound sand.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  5. China already has the most secure internet by Gabest · · Score: 3, Funny

    Since everybody is forced to use VPN to access Google and such.

  6. Re: Hello Chinese agent by freax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Please don't save us and stay home. Spend your American tax dollars on bridges and education.

    Like we do.

    You need it.

  7. Of course! by bickerdyke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course we should consider that Huawai may be forced to include backdoors.

    On the other hand, with Cisco, we know it.

    And if the US wants to start the blackmailing game, I'm sure they can call Cisco and make sure that their prices are.... compareable. Or if you have anything that may hint that Huawai indeed build in backdoors: Come up with some proof. Or at least an effing hint. Or clue. Or inkling... anything that is better than mere claim.

    I'd even go as far and say that we'd be willing to believe any actual evidence (better to be spied on by the US than China) but as long there isn't anything like that the only sensible way to go is to put any possible vendor through a strict security check.

    --
    bickerdyke
    1. Re:Of course! by bobbied · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Better the enemy you know than the one you don't.

      So, why do you think it's a good idea to pay China for equipment that likely has back doors, or the possibility to add them sometime in the future by a company that's owned by a hostile state? Cisco may have well documented security issues, but they are not owned and controlled by a country that is hostile. Huawai would be in position to put a back door into any of their equipment with a firmware update, even if they don't exist now. Why take that chance? And how would you be able to know if they did? I seriously doubt they'd let you build the code from source...

      Besides, Cisco and Huawai are not the only two choices here. There are more.

      The issue here is who is behind the company. Huawai is clearly state run, in a thinly veiled way. Clearly Huawai would do as the government requires, and if that was to hide backdoors in their firmware updates, you can bet they'd do it. Cisco? Not so much.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Of course! by bickerdyke · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So, why do you think it's a good idea to pay China for equipment that likely has back doors,

      Again, that's a false premise. As of now, your question should be phrased: Why do you think it's a good idea to pay China for equipment that has no indication of backdoors or security issues except unfounded claims from someone backing a competing vendor?

      Huawai would be in position to put a back door into any of their equipment with a firmware update, even if they don't exist now. Why take that chance? And how would you be able to know if they did? I seriously doubt they'd let you build the code from source...

      They will if they want to sell it to Germany and if it is necessary to pass the security audit. And with no reliable information performing such an audit for ANY possible vendor is the only way to go.

      Clearly Huawai would do as the government requires, and if that was to hide backdoors in their firmware updates, you can bet they'd do it. Cisco? Not so much.

      Well, any american company also is no further than a NSL away from having to give the three letter agencies full access, too. So, again, Germany can't rely on anyone here and has to run their own strict security audit and include any possible vendor here.

      --
      bickerdyke
  8. Re: stupid child by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Germany doesn't want Russia to get a hold of their intel.
    That means that it is better to let China snoop in than to let the US snoop in.

  9. Re:The other alternative is even dumber. by bobbied · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But we'll go with the batshit crazy stupid version you prefer, then: USA tells germany that if they move to 5G that the USA will stop sharing anything with them from their intel (though they will still demand that Germany hand over stuff to them, even if it is via a proxy state like the UK).

    And it's Germany's right to not share information with the USA if they don't find the relationship beneficial to them.

    Look, I get why the USA is saying this. It's not about pushing USA build equipment, it's about preserving security on the networks that carry the terabytes of secret information passing between the countries. The USA doesn't want one specific manufacturer's equipment in that network. I get why.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  10. You can tell when the China shills come out by thereddaikon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The comments are always full of whattaboutism with Cisco. That's a red herring to the discussion. And to the arrogant Europeans who think they can live without US intelligence because Orange Man Bad. Enjoy losing access to all of those satellites, drones, ELINT platforms and more. Its a hard pill to swallow but Europe's military is tiny and you simply haven't invested in those platforms. Without access to US assets you have little to no intelligence gathering capability on your own. I also don't think there is anything unreasonable about the requirements. Would you have said the same thing in the 60's if the US refused to share intel over Russian built radios? Why do you think Chinese built hardware is acceptable for official purposes. You have your own tech companies, buy their hardware.

  11. Re:It doesn't matter anymore by Freischutz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And, of course, you have proof of this?

    The NSA project is called Tailored Access Operations: http://www.spiegel.de/internat...

    Cisco got so pissed about it they went to visit the president to complain: https://www.techdirt.com/artic...

    Warning of an erosion of confidence in the products of the U.S. technology industry, John Chambers, the CEO of networking giant Cisco Systems, has asked President Obama to intervene to curtail the surveillance activities of the National Security Agency.

  12. Re:The other alternative is even dumber. by XXongo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    it's about preserving security on the networks that carry the terabytes of secret information passing between the countries.

    By preserve security you of course mean maintain the US ability to slurp it all up.

    Um, you do have to realize that the Chinese government are not the good guys. Saying "well, what about NSA spying??" is a whataboutism argument. Yes, the NSA is a spy agency, but that doesn't mean that Chinese spying is something we shouldn't worry about.

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/whataboutism-origin-meaning