“We are not yet awake to this threat. China has spotted an opportunity
to dominate this market, and if it does so it can harvest an awful lot
of data as well as making foreign countries dependent on them,”
“The most game-changing advantage of technology is that it enables
the accumulation of massive amounts of data,”
“The [Chinese Communist Party] views data as a
strategic resource. When processed and aggregated, data can support its
interests across military, economic, political, cultural and other
domains.”
“In line with CCP industrial policy to promote global champions in new
industries, IOT companies have benefited from the creation of a domestic
market which excludes international competition.”
Charles Parton, former British diplomat, report author
“We are legislating to protect consumers' connected devices, such as
smartphones, TVs, speakers and routers, through new laws to strengthen
their privacy and security.”
"It will ban sales in the UK of smart
devices with poor cyber security and get rid of easy-to-guess passwords
which are often included as standard with consumer tech."
British government spokesman
Telecoms companies were
ordered to strip tech from Chinese firm Huawei from mobile and broadband
networks over national security concerns
Credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images
China
has many spyware tricks yet to be revealed. Above and apart from the
clumsy effort it took to send a giant balloon over a sensitive military
area in the United States, inviting a takedown engendering a warning
from Chinese Premier Xi Jinping that there would be 'consequences'.
Heavens above, think of all those intelligence-gathering satellites
circling the Earth, beaming back data invaluable to the Intelligence
Services of those countries that can afford them; and increasingly many
now can. So why resort to a balloon?
There
are, it seems, far more complex, little-imagined ways to gather
sensitive intelligence; install microchips in everything. And since
'everything' is manufactured in China and shipped out worldwide, from
the world's manufacturing colossus, Beijing has excelled at the game. To
the point where the world is now being warned that their refrigerators,
their cars, and even light bulbs are capable of collecting and
transmitting data through the 5G phone network.
Beijing
has enabled itself with the naive cooperation of its targets, to
monitor intelligence targets, people, arms and supplies. Modules
described as a "Trojan Horse" technology now pose a "wide-ranging"
threat to U.K. national security, comes the warning sent to the U.K.
government by one of its former diplomats, advising Parliament on
Beijing in a report.
OODA,
a Washington-based consultancy, states that the potential threat
outmaneuvers any threats from Chinese-produced components in cellphone
masts, a situation that led to a ban on Huawei products in cellphone
infrastructure. But Beijing has more than merely one, two, three ways to
sneak into restricted files to satisfy its appetite for data-gathering;
military-industrial, technological, medical, governmental,
what-have-you.
To
the present, experts have been unable to grasp the "pervasive presence"
of the modules, cellular IoTs. Now senior Members of Parliament are
expressing grave concern. Ministers are called upon to take urgent
action banning Chinese-made cellular loTs from goods sold in Britain. In
his former diplomatic life, Mr. Parton spend 22 years dealing with
China, Taiwan and Hong Kong; he is a special adviser to the Commons
foreign affairs committee.
Cellular IoTs (Internet of Things),
are small modules used in everything; smart fridges to advanced weapons
systems to monitor use and transmit data to the owner -- often the
manufacturer, using 5G. The Internet of Things reflects devices that
connect and exchange data with other devices of the Internet. Cellular
IoTs are the component that makes devices "smart".
It
was revealed earlier that the security services dismantled ministerial
cars, finding at least one of the devices hidden within another
component -- leading to fears that China has the capacity to monitor
movements of everyone, from the prime minister downward, with the use of
the modules.
Millions of Chinese made chips are already in use in the UK (Image: Getty)
"This is a tame animal that is used to get food served so that is why it
has made contacts with the fishermen." "The question is now
whether it can survive by finding food by itself. We have seen cases
where other whales that have been in Russian captivity [are] doing fine." "It is most likely that [the] Russian Navy in Murmansk [is involved. Russia
has major military facilities in and around Murmansk on the Kola
Peninsula, in the far northwest of Russia]." Audun Rikardsen, professor, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Arctic University of Norway, Tromsoe
"If this comes from Russia, and there is good reason to believe it does, then it is not Russian scientists but rather the navy that has done this." "This is not a method scientists use, and as far as I know, Russian scientists do not tag beluga whales." Martin Biuw, Institute of Marine Research, Norway
Joergen Ree Wiig tries to reach the harness attached to a beluga whale
before the Norwegian fishermen were able to removed the tight harness,
off the northern Norwegian coast Friday, April 26, 2019. The harness
strap which features a mount for an action camera, says "Equipment St.
Petersburg" which has prompted speculation that the animal may have
escaped from a Russian military facility. (Joergen Ree Wiig/Norwegian
Direcorate of Fisheries Sea Surveillance Unit via AP)
The Arctic nations of (Russia), Canada, Norway, Denmark and the United States have long been on the alert resulting from the Russian Federation's uptick in activity in the region. Investing huge sums of national treasury to upgrade and rebuild former Arctic stations for research and new military installations equipped with the latest technically-advanced arms. Russia's exploit in planting a titanium flag on the ocean floor was its first gambit on putting the world on notice. Future opportunities to begin extracting valuable natural resources within the Arctic beckon.
With the melting of Arctic glaciers and sea ice becoming less packed in, sea lanes are opening up, promising greater accessibility to shorten voyages through the Northwest Passage, reducing costs for trade purposes. Even China, as distant as it is from the Arctic has requested observer status on the future of the Arctic within UN auspices. Fishermen in northern Norway were startled recently when a beluga whale came abreast of their fishing boat. The cetacean appeared to seek them out as though it wanted something.
Perhaps, as a 'tame' animal accustomed to being fed, that might be what it wanted. On the other hand, a constricting harness was attached to the small whale and it's even more likely it wanted help removing the harness. Fishing off the island of Ingoya in proximity to Norway's Arctic border with Russia three brothers saw the small white whale alongside their boat. It had previously approached other fishemen who witnessed the beluga attempting to rub the straps off its body, the brothers said.
Eventually the whale was relieved of the irritating harness when a fisheries service employee wearing a wetsuit was enabled to remove the harness while in the water, and the beluga swam away, communication received, aid given. On the buckle of the harness identification as to its origins was clear: "Equipment St.Petersburg" was stamped there. And with the harness was an attachment meant to hold a GoPro camera.
Professor Rikardsen from the Norwegian Arctic University contacted Russian colleagues to ascertain that neither they nor Norwegian scientists had placed the harness on the whale. During the Cold war in the time of the Soviet Union a program with "combat dolphins" had been undertaken. Dolphins trained to hunt for submarines and mines. Former army media officer Viktor Baranets spoke of the dolphins completing tasks "from studying the sea floor to guarding harbours to destroying enemy infiltrators to attaching explosives to the hulls of foreign ships".
This, in reference to a secret military installation in Cossack Bay, Crimea, known to train belugas and dolphins. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, two dolphinariums at Cossack Bay fell into disuse, wth one trainer taking possession of a beluga whale and other animals in 2000, taking them to Iran insisting that in Ukraine he was left with nothing to feed them. When Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 when eastern Ukraine fell to rebel ethnic-Russian Ukrainians opting for independence, it took possession of the facility.
Since then the program evidently was expanded. The Russian defence ministry in 2016 announced a tender for the purchase of five dolphins. A now-retired Russian general attributed "Scandinavian paranoia" to the very thought that the whale had been engaged in a spying operation for Russia. "The Norwegians probably would have liked the ID of a GRU dolphin officer to be attached to it as well. We're not idiots. If we were conducting reconnaissance with the help of this animal, how would we have done it? Written a mobile phone number on it to call in case something happens?"
"That's more than just Huawei. This is just a western bias against China. That goes back culturally." "The country and the company all need to learn how to tell a better story. This is why I'm now able to talk to you." "I don't think we trust anybody. We've operated for a long time on the basis you can't trust vendors to have secure equipment." Huawei spokesman
"There's nobody that does customer centric the way Huawei does customer centric." "Anybody that breaks those rules is automatically terminated. We've always had to pay more attention than our peers in the industry just to keep the playing field level." "It's time that we come together as an industry to get working with regulators, to get working with governments to build a common standard to say if you want to play in this space, this is what you have to do." Leroy Blimegger, global president, assurance and managed services, Huawei
"They've been a little naive perhaps ... all these political shenanigans are not something that they're used to." "It's the old chestnut that it's impossible to prove a negative. They can say till they're blue in the face, 'We'd never share information with the Chinese government'." Peter Richardson, research director, Counterpoint Research
Ren Zhengfei, a former military engineer with the Chinese military, began his now-giant communications/electronics corporation with modest funding soon after Deng Xiaoping had declared Shenzhen, a semi-rural city, open for business on a modified Communist free-enterprise model. The-then fishing village of some 30,000 inhabitants in 1987 has since grown through its status as a special economic zone with freer markets, into a massive metropolis of 12.5-million people. As Shenzhen has grown, so too has Huawei.
In 2017, the Chinese Communist Party brought the National Intelligence Law into service whereby all Chinese organizations and citizens are obligated to support, assist and co-operate with intelligence officials. This is their first order of business; to spy for or along with the CCP. Yet Huawei insists all security protocols are scrupulously adhered to by them. Charging that it is being targeted with anti-China biases by those resentful of its ascent to the top of its game worldwide. As though to stress its bona fides Huawei calls for industry-wide cybersecurity standards.
Since Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the company's founder, was arrested in Vancouver on an extradition request from the U.S. on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and China responded with great alacrity and even greater recrimination by arresting two Canadian businessmen, upgrading a third's prison sentence to a death sentence for drug running, the suspicion with which Huawei's security is viewed globally has intensified.
Huawei is busy courting contracts for 5G communications upgrades, assuring its potential clients of its security protocols and that the 32-year-old company has never and never would, acquire data on foreign nations through its systems distribution, holding to industry-wide cybersecurity standards. Its reputation has suffered quite a blow with the detention of Ms. Meng and the U.S. charges against the company erupting from manoeuvring to do business with Iran, despite U.S. sanctions.
Close to 50 percent of Huawei's $107-billion in global revenue emanates from business outside China; over a quarter of its revenues derive from contracts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. North America, minus the U.S., supplied about $7-billion of Huawei's global revenue. It has invested research and development in Canada to the tune of $30 million annually; the third-largest target for R&D spending; 5G innovation centered to a large degree in Ottawa.
A hostess waits to welcome journalists at the Huawei Beijing Executive Briefing Centre in Beijing.Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images
Ten percent of its global research budget goes to basic research at Canadian universities. Recently a new report was released in the United Kingdom focusing on its Huawei CyberSecurity Evaluation Centre, set up as an oversight facility to test the company's gear for the presence of vulnerabilities. The report revealed "serious and systemic defects in Huawei's software engineering and cybersecurity competence"; that the U.K. security system could provide only limited technical assurance for the equipment; on the other hand that it "does not believe that the defects identified are a result of Chinese state interference".
Huawei has built over 1,500 networks around the world, built a base station on Mount Everest, its equipment was used in one of the first LTE networks with Telia Sonera in Norway. After three decades of accelerated growth Huawei is the world's largest telecommunications equipment manufacturers. It employs close to 188,000 people, operating in over 170 countries and regions of the world. In 2018 the company sold over 200 million smartphones as the third-largest smartphone provider globally.
The company has offered a lower price point to establish its foothold in emerging markets. Carriers in developed countries understood by 2009 that Huawei gave good service at a competitive price: "4G was the first time Huawei showed it could compete with the best", said Dexter Thillien, telecom analyst at Fitch Solutions based in London. With higher quality on offer, the company was able to compete even in Chinese cities where western company services had dominated. According to Thillien and other analysts, Huawei is in the lead with 5G, thanks to its massive investment in R&D.
Yet many governments nervously view what they see as a lack of transparency over Huawei's ownership structure and its relationship with the Chinese government. Australia and the U.S. have acted on that suspicion by banning Huawei. Parts of Europe seem to be swaying in the same direction, even while Germany, Italy and France seem to be leaning toward the Telus view in Canada to continue its collaboration with Huawei on the basis that the company's equipment is permitted in the periphery but not the core network.
While swearing it has never, would never spy for the Chinese government, that it follows the rule of law wherever it operates and blames suspicion on rogue employees, it isn't convincing everyone who matters. Huawei cannot shake itself free of suspicions that it acts as an arm of the state, its high-tech equipment could contain back doors allowing the Chinese government to conduct espionage or insert code with the potential to shut down an entire network....
A staff member of Huawei uses her mobile phone at the Huawei Digital Transformation Showcase in Shenzhen, China.Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
