WYP
News Guru
US sanctions will make Huawei equipment less safe.
Read more about the UK's new Huawei restrictions.
Read more about the UK's new Huawei restrictions.
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UK mobile providers must remove Huawei 5G kit by 2027 announces government
- Thread starter WYP
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Dicehunter
Resident Newb
I've played around with a friends Huawei smartphone and while it is VERY swish, The move away from Huawei comes down to 1 single immutable fact, Huawei is indirectly controlled by the CCP, Huawei says that it is owned by its employees via a trade union, But all trade unions in China are controlled by the CCP.
Pile on top that security firms have found many security risks with various Huawei devices and it's no wonder why many don't want them in the vicinity.
Is Huawei's tech good ? Yeah it's brilliant, But their ties with the CCP makes them a no go for anyone concerned with privacy.
The risk and reasoning here has nothing to do with Huawei-developed tech, it's to do with potential risks of tech Huawei buys from other Chinese companies. UK govt and most security agencies still believe there is no risk from Huawei themselves, or the ICs they directly develop.
Of course, even if they were affiliated with a government(Not much conclusive evidence for that here mind) that alone would not be a security risk, for example a significant portion of tech sold by US private firms was developed by the US state through programs like DARPA, such as most older wireless communication tech being derived from US military tech. The risk would have to come from either finding vulnerabilities/back doors/ect, finding cases of obvious industrial espionage that would imply the former exists, or finding clear intentions and motives of the former.
(And it's not like people aren't looking for these, no doubt many governments and agencies have invested a lot of time and money into trying to find specific backdoors in Huawei hardware, or at least some kind of unknown data transmission from devices that could indicate it, as the cost savings and gains of using their hardware are hard to ignore)
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AlienALX
Well-known member
Nah we didn't man. We told Trump to swivel, but China have taken mass liberties in Hong Kong. That is why we have done this. Trump will be rubbing his hands together, but yeah it had little to do with him.
Rising tensions over HK would definitely have played a part in it, but for this to be an effective diplomatic message over HK the UK govt would at least have to mention HK as key reasoning rather than going with the "security threats" line, especially when this is costing the UK tax payer £2Bn and hampered network speeds for a decade, it's not the cheapest form of diplomatic messaging or threats.
Though if this was purely diplomacy rather than security threats or incentives from another super power, we would need other countries to follow suit for it to be effective too, as UK and US are not really Huawei's traditional major markets, so I guess maybe that's why the govt is running with the security threat line that Trump's administration has been pushing us to adopt for years but we'd previously rejected.
Though if this was purely diplomacy rather than security threats or incentives from another super power, we would need other countries to follow suit for it to be effective too, as UK and US are not really Huawei's traditional major markets, so I guess maybe that's why the govt is running with the security threat line that Trump's administration has been pushing us to adopt for years but we'd previously rejected.
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23RO_UK
New member
I would suggest it's more Five Eyes Alliance partner pressure rather than just the influence of that glowing orange individual, I agree that the issue of Hong Kong has tipped the balance even further and coupled with an increasing displeasure amongst the Tory back bench = You have a fcuk you Huawei situation on your hands.
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
I watched a software engineer explain the Intel ME, A little OS within your hardware you cannot access that Intel refuse to fully disclose it's function, Shady AF !
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
AMD has this as well, AMD Platform Security Processor (PSP) or known as AMD Secure Technology, is also closed sourced and AMD refuse to open it up.
While little is known about it as it is newer, Intel is likely a better solution for the sole purpose that it's been around longer. As far as we know both are -3 ring level access which means they have the absolute highest authority over even the kernel (which is ring 0). They both run as long as the motherboard is receiving power.
But while that's a guess for AMD that is how it works for Intel ME. The only benefit AMD has is it's PSP runs off an ARM CPU only dedicated to this solution. This means it potentially could be more secure because it's isolated. But again we don't know much about PSP.
So I wouldn't get to wound up about it with Intel. AMD does it too.
dazbobaby
New member
My point is that Huawei/CCP are punished for being dodgy, and I'm pretty sure telco's would have vetted and tested the kit thoroughly before using it.
Yet Intel (and AMD I'd forgotten about PSP) chips are everywhere and no one bats and eye. Yet these companies have these confirmed deliberate flaws. I guess it doesn't matter as long as it's the CIA, NSA, MI5/6 that gets the intelligence and not China.
It's both sides of the same coin.
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
It's not the same thing. It's a backdoor yes but they are not sharing any of the information on your CPU. You would be able to tell if it was sending data as once the code leaves that specific set of transistors, it's no longer inside the backdoor and freely available to track. We would have caught them by now.
The backdoor exist to override everything to monitor the CPU. It just also brings with it the ability to hack into the deepest part of the CPU more easily. It's constantly updated however.
Intel ME is under constant research of Security Experts. They point out many flaws and Intel fixes them. Usually very quickly and it doesn't get noticed by the media. AMD PSP is newer and less known
Oh no yeah, Intel ME might not be an issue but dazbobaby is right that other countries do exactly what they're accusing China of doing. A June 2010 report from the NSA admits it really blatantly, states in no uncertain terms that the NSA regularly receives or intercepts routers, servers and other computer network devices being exported from the US before they are delivered to the international customers. There's a long documented history of Cisco backdoors for US govt agencies in everything from servers to home routers, but similar backdoors have also been found in say D-Link or Sony hardware. Everyones at it really.
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