US investigating Huawei over concerns that equipment near military bases could send sensitive...

[Shawn Knight]

TL;DR: The US Department of Commerce is actively investigating Chinese technology corporation Huawei over concerns that equipment installed on US cell towers near military bases and missile silos could capture sensitive information and pass it along to China.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the probe launched shortly after President Joe Biden took office in early 2021. A 10-page document viewed by Reuters points to a 2021 subpoena to learn more about how Huawei shares data with foreign parties.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr claims cell towers near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana once utilized Huawei technology. Data from phones that communicated using those towers could reveal vital information about military actions, like troop movements.

"There's a very real concern that some of that technology could be used as an early warning system if there happened to be, God forbid, an ICBM missile strike," Carr said.

The publication reached out to the Commerce Department, but was told it could not confirm or deny ongoing investigations. A spokesperson did add that "protecting US persons' safety and security against malign information collection is vital to protecting our economy and national security."

Huawei was also pinged for comment but did not respond to the request. In an e-mailed statement from the Chinese embassy in Washington, a spokesperson said the US government abuses the concept of national security and state power to go all out to suppress Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications companies without providing any solid proof that they constitute a security threat to the US and other countries.

Reuters said it was unable to determine what actions the agency might be able to take should it deem Huawei a national security threat, nor could it determine if Huawei's equipment is even capable of collecting and sharing that sort of sensitive information.

The US government has long accused Huawei of spying on behalf of the Chinese government. In 2018, President Trump signed a defense bill prohibiting the US government and its contractors from using certain tech from Huawei, ZTE and other Chinese firms. A year, Huawei was added to an export blacklist maintained by the government.

Image credit: Matthew Childs via Reuters, Sigmund

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https://www.techspot.com/news/95385-us-investigating-huawei-over-concerns-equipment-near-military.html

 

[maxxcool7421]

Ummm ... duh? Of course it does? ...

 

[p51d007]

Doesn't matter anyway. China Joe and Hong Kong Hunter gave them anything they wanted.

 

[kira setsu]

Then make your own damn equipment and put it on the tower!

oh yeah, no one here can build it since we sent everything to our sworn enemies since they'll build it for cheap.

 

[psycros]

Then make your own damn equipment and put it on the tower!

oh yeah, no one here can build it since we sent everything to our sworn enemies since they'll build it for cheap.

Oh, we can still build it, and it'll be much better gear, but the lower profit margin will mean that some executive won't be able to buy a new mega-yacht till *next* year.

 

[Uncle Al]

I thought Huawei had already been banned / restricted from use in the USA a few years ago ... why is this coming up again?

 

[toooooot]

What do you do to help yourself or friendly countries to produce this equipment?
There has to be a solution to get these from a country other than China.

 

[Rocky4040]

Well Well all I say is the pot calling the kettle black They are just as bad considering they like to sky on other countries and their own people as well I am tlaking about the USA of coarse. I could say the same thing about our own government here in Canada & I am sure they try but I am certain our government does not have as many toys as the USA or China for that matter.

 

[Rocky4040]

Typical government BS by their own admission they don't even know if Huawei has the hardware to even do such a thing. I guess hey lets condem a company or someone before you know all or any of the facts. Go USA government you rock.../s

"nor could it determine if Huawei's equipment is even capable of collecting and sharing that sort of sensitive information."

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Huawei refused to put backdoors in for the NSA back in 2014, that's why the US government doesn't like them.

 

[Endymio]

Typical government BS by their own admission they don't even know if Huawei has the hardware to even do such a thing.

You understand how cell phones work, right? To function, they transmit information to a cell tower, which by design knows what data they're sending, along with when and where. A cell tower router has the ability to send data anywhere in the world, without warning. Huawei routers have also have the ability to receive firmware updates in real-time, direct from China, instantly reprograming their functionality.

Huawei has the capability to spy on cell phone traffic. That's indisputable. The only thing in dispute is whether or not they do it. The "unable to confirm" statement you quoted was a Reuters reporter, saying they could not confirm if Huawei's tower transceivers have the capability to spy on radio traffic **other** than cell phone data.

I guess hey lets condem a company or someone before you know all or any of the facts. Go USA government you rock.../s

Huawei has condemned itself by its own actions. It has deep ties with the Chinese government, deeper than any other Chinese firm, and have actively aided the PRC in their genocidal campaign against the Uighurs. It has also engaged in a decades-long trail of industrial theft and espionage, for which it has been indicted multiple times in various countries.

Huawei’s history is cluttered with allegations of intellectual property theft and unethical conduct, according to the Wall Street Journal. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice returned a 16-count superseding indictment to federal court in the Eastern District of New York that added “a charge of conspiracy to steal trade secrets” to an earlier charge of racketeering against Huawei ....

"...evidence contradicting Huawei’s cyber-espionage denials has been mounting for a while. In 2018, France’s Le Monde reported that IT department staff at the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, found data transfers on its servers had been peaking after hours from January 2012 to January 2017. On further investigation, they discovered that the AU’s internal data was being stored on unknown servers hosted in Shanghai. Huawei had installed the system and remained the AU’s key information and communications technology provider. It asserted it was unaware of the data transmission, but experts questioned how a breach so large could go unnoticed for 1,825 days in a row. Two years later, senior security officials in Uganda and Zambia told the Wall Street Journal that Huawei technicians played a direct role in helping their governments spy on political opponents..."

 

[EdmondRC]

They spy on people that are already Chinese, why not spy on the people that are being sold to the Chinese?

 

[nnKain]

Typical government BS by their own admission they don't even know if Huawei has the hardware to even do such a thing. I guess hey lets condem a company or someone before you know all or any of the facts. Go USA government you rock.../s

"nor could it determine if Huawei's equipment is even capable of collecting and sharing that sort of sensitive information."

I have never replied ever on this site before in probably nearly 20 years but the corporate internet of today and the lazy and poorly educated that do not research anything on their own have made me want to. For anyone that doesn't know google Huawei and Nortel and you will know why Huawei became big and how they got their 5G tech and everything else and why Nortel went out of business. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Canadian Liberal government helped them even, mainly PM Jean Chrétien who started the awesome relationship with China while PM and currently. Anyways before you make stupid comments please read the facts. I can also tell you everything you do is tracked these days everything doesn't matter government or corporations. Sure your own country listens and tracks things, how many things have been stopped before they happen that no one knows about. Tech is great but it has made people just assume things from paid social media ads. Media has been weaponized as well from local and foreign actors. Hope maybe 1 person learns from this post. Everyone remembers the bad and not the good and there is always 2 sides to every story. Maybe I will post again in a decade or 2. Vent , Rant over.

 

[ddferrari]

I have never replied ever on this site before in probably nearly 20 years but the corporate internet of today and the lazy and poorly educated that do not research anything on their own have made me want to. For anyone that doesn't know google Huawei and Nortel and you will know why Huawei became big and how they got their 5G tech and everything else and why Nortel went out of business. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Canadian Liberal government helped them even, mainly PM Jean Chrétien who started the awesome relationship with China while PM and currently. Anyways before you make stupid comments please read the facts. I can also tell you everything you do is tracked these days everything doesn't matter government or corporations. Sure your own country listens and tracks things, how many things have been stopped before they happen that no one knows about. Tech is great but it has made people just assume things from paid social media ads. Media has been weaponized as well from local and foreign actors. Hope maybe 1 person learns from this post. Everyone remembers the bad and not the good and there is always 2 sides to every story. Maybe I will post again in a decade or 2. Vent , Rant over.

Well let's start with how to use paragraphs, for us "poorly educated".
Press "Enter", twice.

We all know we're being tracked to some degree. That's why one must be thoughtful with their words and how much they want to reveal about themselves.

A current or potential employer may read, for example, a "rant" (your words) and receive the impression that the writer has anger issues.