Congress Brands Huawei and ZTE as Security Threats
Oct 7, 2012, 10:43 PM by Eric M. Zeman
A draft report written by the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee concludes that both Huawei and ZTE should be prevented from expanding their businesses in the U.S. due the possibility that they could threaten the national security of the U.S. The draft report, which is set to be published in final form October 8, is the culmination of an 11-month investigation into the two corporations, which make wireless networking gear and cellular telephones. "U.S. network providers and system developers are strongly encouraged to seek other vendors for their projects," said a portion of the report. It also said Huawei and ZTE "cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems." The authors of the report said that both companies were reluctant to hand over key documents about their relationships with the Chinese government. The authors also said they received "credible allegations" that suggested Huawei is guilty of bribery, corruption, discriminatory behavior, and other malfeasance. Huawei spokesperson Bill Plummer rejected the reports conclusions. "Baseless suggestions...that Huawei is somehow uniquely vulnerable to cyber mischief ignore technical and commercial realities, recklessly threaten American jobs and innovation, do nothing to protect national security, and should be exposed as dangerous political distractions from legitimate public-private initiatives to address what are global and industry-wide cyber challenges." Plummer's comments went submitted to Reuters via email. It's not clear how the report will affect Huawei and ZTE's existing business relationships. MetroPCS, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile USA all sell Huawei and/or ZTE handsets.
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Comments
You have got to be kidding me.
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If you're going to block ZTE and Huawai, how about just blocking them because they make crappy products? That would at least be a legitimate co...
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Compared to what?
Our wireless carriers can install Carrier IQ on our phones without our permission (software which is apparently a finger fumble away from oops-we-logged-your-keystrokes), and the US government doesn't give a hoot.
But they warn us that Huawei might, via unspecified hypothetical means, do unspecified things. And maybe they will, But our heroic politicians sure are selective about protecting us.
Globhead said:...
The US government wants to spy on us at will, and the NSA won't say how many times it "accidentally" committed warrantless theft of our data.
Our wireless carriers can install Carrier IQ on our phones without our
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The anti-China paranoia of today
