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America's Latest Effort To Thwart the Growth of China's Huawei is Playing Out Beneath the World's Oceans (wsj.com)

Posted by msmash on from the under-the-surface dept.

A new front has opened in the battle between the U.S. and China over control of global networks that deliver the internet. This one is beneath the ocean. [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; syndicated source.] From a report: While the U.S. wages a high-profile campaign to exclude China's Huawei from next-generation mobile networks over fears of espionage, the company is embedding itself into undersea cable networks that ferry nearly all of the world's internet data. About 380 active submarine cables -- bundles of fiber-optic lines that travel oceans on the seabed -- carry about 95% of intercontinental voice and data traffic, making them critical for the economies and national security of most countries. Current and former security officials in the U.S. and allied governments now worry that these cables are increasingly vulnerable to espionage or attack and say the involvement of Huawei potentially enhances China's capabilities.

Huawei denies any threat. The U.S. hasn't publicly provided evidence of its claims that Huawei technology poses a cybersecurity risk. Its efforts to persuade other countries to sideline the company's communication technology have been met with skepticism by some. Huawei Marine Networks, majority owned by the Chinese telecom giant, completed a 3,750-mile cable between Brazil and Cameroon in September. It recently started work on a 7,500-mile cable connecting Europe, Asia and Africa and is finishing up links across the Gulf of California in Mexico. Altogether, the company has worked on some 90 projects to build or upgrade seabed fiber-optic links, gaining fast on the three U.S., European and Japanese firms that dominate the industry. These officials say the company's knowledge of and access to undersea cables could allow China to attach devices that divert or monitor data traffic -- or, in a conflict, to sever links to entire nations.

7 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. US and Russia have done it, so I guess we know by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    This seems like how we knew that Saddam used to have WMDs, we sold them to him, and we kept the receipts. Of course, since we knew how old they were, we also knew he didn't have them any more.

    The only nations we know have actually tampered with undersea cables are the US and Russia, so I guess we know conclusively that China could do it because we've done it.

    With that said, yes, it's a credible threat. And yes, Huawei probably could bring something to the table in that regard. But so what? That only means that China has come along to a party which was already swingin'.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:US and Russia have done it, so I guess we know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, Saddam did have chemical weapons. WMD's. Yes, he did. He did not have a nuclear program advanced as advertised by Dick Cheney's cassus belli, and his biological program had been buried.

      Mentioning it constantly doesn't make the allegations against Huawei, a directly-owned and fraudulently controlled tentacle of the Chinese Communist Party, any less guilty or any less of a threat to western interests.

      I don't see why you're so keen to make apologies or excuses.

  2. It depends on your viewpoint... by argStyopa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "...Current and former security officials in the U.S. and allied governments now worry that these cables are increasingly vulnerable to espionage or attack ..." ...by OTHER people.

    I know US submariners that have talked vaguely about high tech cable-tapping missions since the 1990s.

    So it's not so much a "OMG they're vulnerable" as "crap those guys can perhaps do it now too" thing.

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re:It depends on your viewpoint... by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I know US submariners that have talked vaguely about high tech cable-tapping missions since the 1990s.

      1990s LOL. The U.S. built a nuclear powered deep-water submarine in the 1960s specifically to tap underwater communications cables. It was used publicly to recover parts from airliner crashes and shipwrecks from the ocean floor. But it's obvious from its capabilities (multi-week loiter capability with manipulator arms) that it was made for tapping undersea cables. The fact that they built the ultimate underwater cable tapping machine in the 1960s tells you they were playing around with tapping the cables for at least decades prior. The fact that they retired it in 2008 should make you think about what shiny new toys they have now for doing the same thing.

      So it's not so much a "OMG they're vulnerable" as "crap those guys can perhaps do it now too" thing.,

      That's exactly it. The U.S. has been doing this for decades, so it's actually in the best position to know what the vulnerabilities and technical challenges are. And despite the general anti-U.S. sentiment among western countries, their interests align much more closely with the U.S.' interests than with China's. So if the U.S. is going so far as to warn its allies about the threat, it's a pretty good bet that there's really something to this.

  3. ECHELON by darkain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The United States is worried that China is doing in 2019 what the USA did starting in the 1960s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  4. Proof by Maelwryth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Look, this whole Huawei is selling equipment that can be used to spy would be very simply solved if the U.S. would show some proof. If they can't do that then they are either lying, aren't technologically able too or haven't been able too because Huawei can come straight back with U.S. equipment and show how it is being used to spy. Since 9/11 the U.S. has been a political disaster on the world stage and they just aren't trusted anymore. Not even by their allies.

    --
    I reserve the write to mangle english.
    1. Re:Proof by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If they can't do that then they are either lying, aren't technologically able too or haven't been able too because Huawei can come straight back with U.S. equipment and show how it is being used to spy.

      You missed a key - And likely most the important - Reason that the USA can't "prove it." Doing so will likely damage existing intelligence gathering operations and/or put intelligence operatives in harm's way.

      If the USA has an intelligence asset inside Huawei then revealing their proof might harm that asset.

      Things are further complicated by the fact that the White House doesn't keep secrets very well, so the intelligence services are likely hesitant to reveal their sources.