[LINK] What's Behind the Huawei Fracas

Ash Nallawalla ash at melbpc.org.au
Sat Mar 31 11:24:09 AEDT 2012


I am not convinced that Huawei transmission devices would be used to copy
someone's data and divert it to China. Far too obvious.

However, if I were a party functionary embedded within Huawei, I'd be asking
for something simple to be built into the native circuitry that could
disrupt it with a signal sent across the fibre. Such a component need not be
manufactured in a Huawei factory. Such coding would not be noticed by NBN.

Disrupting traffic, whether done in a particular street or a whole city is
bad for all of us even when the two countries are "friends". Slowing down an
economy, even on such a petty scale can add up and help the perpetrator.
Today's "world wars" aren't about killing people, but are about market
domination and economic success. A friend of mine is making millions by
writing command-line Linux code for stock trading, where specialised CPUs
are compared in microseconds.

And of course, the local Aussie employees would never know what's in the
circuitry. Trojan horses are not new.

(I wouldn't put it past a US vendor to build similar backdoors either.)

Ash

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roger Clarke

> The reporting on Huawei's exclusion from the NBNCo contracts has
> unfortunately been facile.
> 
> Even the business-writers and the ABC suckered for the proposition,
> attributed to ASIO, that this was all about "cyberattacks coming out of
China".
> 
> The suggestion that Huawei is involved in those activities is a straw man.
It
> enables the company, through an ex-Australian Cabinet Minister, to defend,
> probably quite honestly, that they don't do that kind of thing.
> 
> The real issue is whether Huawei technology brings with it embedded
> insecurity.
> 
> This is an opportunity to get back on the agenda the much broader set of
> issues that NBNCo must be forced to deal with, in public.





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