Huawei Equipment Has Major Security Flaws, U.K. Says – The Wall Street Journal
What happened: A report released by a UK watchdog said that Huawei poses a major risk to the country’s telecom networks because it failed to address security flaws in its products and demonstrate a commitment to fixing them. The report is an annual update from the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Center (HCSEC), a laboratory that the company set up in 2010 to examine its products used in British networks. The report said “further significant technical issues have been identified in Huawei’s engineering processes,” which could lead to new risks in the UK’s telecom networks.
Why it’s important: British officials attributed the defects to Huawei’s “poor software engineering,” and stated that they were not a result of Chinese state interference. While it stopped short of recommending a ban on Huawei from supplying equipment for UK 5G networks, the report rebuked Huawei for its failure to address previously identified security concerns. This is blow to the telecom giant, which had seen some respite from US pressure following its worldwide media campaign to repair its image. Huawei struck back at the US with a lawsuit filed in early March seeking to overturn a ban against its equipment.