Huawei: China's State Hackers 'Rigging 5G Tests' Against Nokia And Ericsson

Forbes ^ | 6/1/2019 | Zak Doffman C

[Zhang Fei]

Now, a story in the Sunday Telegraph is just the latest to pose serious questions. The newspaper reports that China has been "rigging" 5G equipment testing to discredit Huawei's rivals, including Nokia and Ericsson. According to government and industry sources, "Beijing is feeding secret details of security vulnerabilities" to the testers to tip the balance in Huawei's favor. The testing encompasses "hacking techniques used to check for weak spots... vulnerabilities discovered by China’s secret state hackers have been passed to the 5G testers to ensure Nokia and Ericsson’s equipment is found to be insecure."

Huawei's security issues have always been separated into two very different areas. First, standard software and hardware vulnerabilities stemming from poor development and testing. This is the crux of a scathing British intelligence report earlier this year that seriously criticized the quality of the technology, and it is the area where Huawei has committed to a multi-billion-dollar investment program to make improvements. It is also the area where the company's rivals will have similar issues and concerns. The second area is the shadowy world of national espionage, where Huawei stands accused of either current or potential future collaboration with China's defense and spy agencies. This is where the so-called smoking gun that has not been publicly produced as yet comes in.

The 5G testing is due to complete this month and China's hope is that it can be used to inform European assessments of Huawei's suitability for 5G deployments. Ahead of the recent U.S. blacklisting of Huawei and its affiliates, it had seemed that key European markets, led by Germany, had secured a pass from Washington, where a rigorous testing regime was seen as good enough, with the U.S. publicly stating that they expected Huawei to fail such a test. The accusations of cheating would seem

[Zhang Fei]

Gotta wonder how many secret trap doors and other malware Huawei has embedded into its 5G firmware and other software.

[SauronOfMordor]

My guess is that they consider 5G to be a vital part of their global intelligence infrastructure, and will do anything to ensure that Chinese equipment is installed worldwide.

That said, I’m less worried about Chinese intelligence, than I am about the abuses of our own Deep State.

[Zhang Fei]

[That said, I’m less worried about Chinese intelligence, than I am about the abuses of our own Deep State.]

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I worry about the effects of having Chinese gear in our communications backbone, because we will be fighting a war with them sooner rather than later. I’d hate to have us unable to respond to a Chinese nuclear first strike because our sensors can’t get through to the people manning our ABM systems or the nuclear triad. The Deep State can be taken down by legal and political means. In an age where China possesses MIRV’ed nuclear warheads and both ICBM’s and SLBM’s, having our communications cut off in wartime could mean our physical extinction.

[Zhang Fei]

Another way of putting this is Democrats have been screwing up this country for 100 years, but the GOP has been able to slow down the process by winning at the ballot box. It will be a lot harder to get over a Chinese nuclear first strike that leaves China untouched because our command and control capabilities have been fried due to Chinese hardware.

[sockmonkey]

*** we will be fighting a war with them sooner rather than later.***

I think the likes of Pompeo and Bolton are more eager for war with China than China is eager for a confrontation with the USA.

[vannrox]

Guys. Everything is made in China. Haven’t you watched the Bruce Willis movie Argemmmon?

[Zhang Fei]

[I think the likes of Pompeo and Bolton are more eager for war with China than China is eager for a confrontation with the USA.]

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If we’re gonna fight China, better to fight it now when it’s weak. If Japan had waited until the 80’s to fight us, we’d have suffered way more than 100,000 dead in the Pacific War.

China doesn’t want war. No country, however vast its territorial ambitions, ever wants war. What it wants is the fruits of victory. Winning new provinces without war is the epitome of strategy.

Chinese leaders are like leaders since the beginning of time - they want personal glory. Acquiring new land to his domain has always been a ruler’s means of writing his name in the history books.

Alexander was the king of a united Greece. Did he need to conquer Persia? Only if he wanted children and cities (Kandahar in Afghanistan, Iskandaria in Egypt, Iskandariyah in Iraq) to be named after him thousands of years later.

Rulers of great nations are already prominent men. They want first place - not just on the list of their nations’ rulers, but on the list of great (i.e. powerful) rulers spanning all of history. To do that, they need to expand the territory handed to them at the time of their ascension to power. Nobody remembers the rulers who made their citizens rich. Everyone remembers the ones who greatly expanded the borders of their nations. These people are not interested in defense - they’re concerned with cementing reputations that will match Alexander’s or Julius Caesar’s.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

Golly gee, this is such a surprise!

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

I think we are already too late to win a war with China. I think that there are now two possible outcomes, they win or nobody wins.

Their anti-ship missiles have the range to take our our fleet long before it can strike back. If they take out Guam and Okinawa with missile strikes (conventional), which they can also do, we are left only with nuclear missile strikes as our only offensive option.

If we lose, we will be lucky to keep the West Coast states and some unarmed local militias for national defense.

[tbw2]

China has had a long history of using private citizens as spies and companies as an extension of the state.