Security experts say US likely exaggerating Huawei threat

Security experts say the US is likely exaggerating the threat from Huawei. Photo / AP

Since last year, the US has waged a vigorous diplomatic offensive against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, claiming that any nation deploying its gear in next-generation wireless networks is giving Beijing a conduit for espionage or worse.

But security experts say the US Government is likely exaggerating that threat. Not only is the US case short on specifics, they say, but it also glosses over the fact that the Chinese don't need secret access to Huawei routers to infiltrate global networks that already have notoriously poor security.

State-sponsored hackers have shown no preference for one manufacturer's technology over another, these experts say. Kremlin-backed hackers, for instance, adroitly exploit internet routers and other networking equipment made by companies that are not Russian.

If the Chinese want to disrupt global networks, "they will do so regardless of the type of equipment you are using", said Jan-Peter Kleinhans, a researcher at the Berlin think tank Neue Verantwortung Stiftung.

One of the most common US fears — that Huawei might install software "backdoors" in its equipment that Chinese intelligence could use to tap into, eavesdrop on or interrupt data transmissions — strikes some experts as highly unlikely.

Priscilla Moriuchi, who retired from the National Security Agency in 2017 after running its Far East operations, does not believe the Huawei threat is overblown. But she called the odds of the company installing backdoors on behalf of Chinese intelligence "almost zero because of the chance that it would be discovered", thus exposing Huawei's complicity.

Moriuchi, now an analyst at the US cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, said she was not aware of the NSA ever finding Huawei backdoors created for Chinese intelligence.

European countries have been reluctant to embrace a blanket anti-Huawei ban.

Meanwhile, in Seattle yesterday, Huawei pleaded not guilty to US trade-theft charges in a case that has heightened a trade dispute between the US and China.

- AP