The U.S. and Australia excluding Huawei from 5G deployments
According to reporting from Reuters, high-level German government officials are making a push to exclude China’s Huawei from the build-out of 5G in the industrial hub. In response, Huawei is planning to a open a lab in Bonn later this month meant to accommodate security-related reviews, an arrangement similar to how Huawei works with regulators in the U.K.
Reuters, quoting a senior German official, wrote, “There is serious concern. If it were up to me we would do what the Australians are doing.”
Earlier this year, Australian officials decided to block Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese network infrastructure vendor, from participating in national 5G efforts. Huawei, at the time, said the move was politically motivated and not the result of a fact-based decision-making process.
In 2010 the U.K. set up the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) Oversight Board, which is charged with examining and correcting “any perceived risks” associated with using the firm’s equipment in U.K. networks, according to the group. In an annual report released earlier this year, the board expressed concern about “the proper functioning of the mitigation strategy” and “can provide only limited assurance that all risks to U.K. national security from Huawei’s involvement in the U.K.’s critical networks have been sufficiently mitigated.”
According to a BBC report, a spokesman for the equipment giant said there are “some areas for improvement. We are grateful for this feedback and are committed to addressing these issues. Cybersecurity remains Huawei’s top priority, and we will continue to actively improve our engineering processes and risk management systems.”
Published reports suggest the facility Huawei is opening in Bonn, also home to Deutsche Telekom’s headquarters, would serve as a similar purpose as its facility in the U.K.
An official with Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security told Reuters, “We have to deal with the reality that there are few hardware manufacturers in Germany – they come from abroad. Based on this reality, we have to achieve the best level of security possible.”
