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Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

nytimes.com

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Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#31

Post by cletus »

This just goes to prove that even a racist clock is right twice a day [1] because it's clear that:

- China has engaged in state-sponsored corporate and military espionage; and

- Chinese companies are not separate from the state.

The only reasonable conclusion here is that Huawei gear on key networking infrastructure represents a security threat and really that's all there is to it. I find it odd that it's taken Trump, who otherwise is a disaster on pretty much every front, to actually say what is otherwise obvious.

[1]: https://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/the-racist-clock-4...

Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#32

Post by bvdba »

cletus wrote: post #31

This just goes to prove that even a racist clock is right twice a day [1] because it's clear that: - China has engaged in state-sponsored corporate and military espionage; and - Chinese companies are not separate from the state. The only reasonable conclusion here is that Huawei gear on key networking infrastructure represents a security threat and really that's all there is to it. I find it odd that it's taken Trump…

I don't believe this is the consequence of Trump being racist.

Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#33

Post by kevin_nisbet »

wobblegong wrote: post #7
mschuster91 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For once in 2 years though the current US admin is right IMHO. China is not an ally, Russia is not an ally. Best case they're semi-neutral, worst case they're the next enemy. China especially has been playing the ultra-long game by slowly getting more and more countries under their dependence, buying up assets left and right and where that didn't help resorting to industrial espionage. The problem that the telco oper…

Are hardware vulnerabilities so difficult to find and insidious that no amount of auditing and investigation by the US govt will ever be sufficient?

Pretty much yes, combined with having to fully audit the software top to bottom every couple of weeks for every patch, piece of firmware, etc with pressure to get into production fixes for issues that affect customers service.

From my experience in the industry, most of the protections being offered are hand-wavy things, like a software patch from Huawei being scanned by a desktop virus scanner for viruses or remote access gateways that record the screens of external employees accessing equipment where the demo I got for the solution the security prime couldn't figure out how to actually view the screen recordings. Huawei employees weren't allowed to give us any USB devices either. (I didn't work with Huawei routinely, although I know many who do. I tended to work with Cisco, Nokia, and several smaller vendors).

The only model I could see sort of working is forcing them to hand over the sources to an industry group or government entity, that is then responsible for auditing, building, and signing the software. But there are so many moving components slipping something past that is still plausible, and many barriers towards that sort of model.

Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#34

Post by taiwanboy »

robertAngst wrote: post #16

Can anyone stop him? I don't want him to do this. I don't want these tariffs. Does this mean the Republican Party is compliant in this nonsense?

Please don’t. Trump is one of the few people standing up to China, and China is threatening to invade my country, Taiwan. China is building up its naval forces and artificial islands nearby. Xi jing Ping has said unification is ultimate goal and force is an option. US intelligence said recently Beijing is preparing to invade Taiwan.

Because of China, Taiwan is barred from attending WHO.

Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#35

Post by bane »

mey wrote: post #11
petschge wrote: post #4

The fear mongering against Huawei becomes really interesting when you look at all the "sorry, we forgot about that unintentional access possibility" incidents in Cisco gear that might either be back doors or lousy QA leading to security problems.

Watching from afar, the amount of huge holes in Cisco are staggering. I don't really understand IT's love of Cisco, other than that's all they've certed in/invested in/never get fired for IBM mentality. For people in the networking space, what makes you use cisco for firewalls/core routing at this point?

Cisco is the Oracle of networking gear.

Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#37

Post by dx87 »

samirm wrote: post #2

This in addition to all the "security" advisories to other countries seems like a move to curb their economic growth more than anything.

Not really. Look at articles posted on this site whenever a device made in China is "accidentally" sending user information back to some server in China; people keep asking why the government isn't doing anything to warn citizens or companies about bad actors in the hardware department. When the government does warn us not to use hardware from a specific vendor, people here say it's just a GOP plot to hurt China's economy under the guise of security.

Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#38

Post by ISV_Damocles »

Alupis wrote: post #12
petschge wrote: post #4

The fear mongering against Huawei becomes really interesting when you look at all the "sorry, we forgot about that unintentional access possibility" incidents in Cisco gear that might either be back doors or lousy QA leading to security problems.

I don't really see the fear mongering or problem here. This executive order would forbid the government from purchasing and installing Telecom/Networking equipment that would be considered to have a higher than acceptable risk. Given that China isn't exactly the most friendly nation to the US, and given Huawei is by nature, an extension of the Chinese Government, it's not unreasonable to assume China might at some po…

> (We should also not forget or excuse Chinese IP theft which has enabled Huawei to produce competitive products in the first place...)

I certainly can, because it would be hypocritical to be against Microsoft using IP rights as a bludgeon on Linux, Qualcomm on Apple, Oracle on Google, and then be upset with Huawei on anything but stealing trade secrets.

Patents have not helped the common man for at least a hundred years as companies have paid for dubious patents to bludgeon smaller competitors with. Copyrights have strangled the arts since Steamboat Willie and have prevented the public from deciding what stories they want to share.

Trademarks and Trade Secrets, however, seem mostly fine, as knowing the real origin of a product is a greater good for the public than letting copycats grift them, and being clever doing something should be rewarded but once it can be replicated, the competition heats up and again helps the general public with better quality goods and services.

Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#39

Post by gscott »

swebs wrote: post #25
robertAngst wrote: post #16

Can anyone stop him? I don't want him to do this. I don't want these tariffs. Does this mean the Republican Party is compliant in this nonsense?

I, on the other hand, am glad these tariffs are happening. They've been a long time coming.

I agree. We can't control China's behavior but the tariffs do a good job of controlling our own behavior since they punish us more then China. So if you are single sourcing everything in China you will be punished more then those who have more sources. Challenge is the next President will back right off and we will be where we were before.

Re: Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei and China

#40

Post by mschuster91 »

solotronics wrote: post #13
mschuster91 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For once in 2 years though the current US admin is right IMHO. China is not an ally, Russia is not an ally. Best case they're semi-neutral, worst case they're the next enemy. China especially has been playing the ultra-long game by slowly getting more and more countries under their dependence, buying up assets left and right and where that didn't help resorting to industrial espionage. The problem that the telco oper…

Are you talking specifically about 5G?

Mostly yes. The thing is that what we see in 5G with China is also happening in other areas as well, both in IT (think of how much of our stuff is produced in China!) and outside of IT (Belt Road initiative).

When it comes to China and Russia, what they are doing is a plan of the sort that can only be done in an authoritarian, controlled state.

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