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US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks

arstechnica.com

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Re: US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks

#51

Post by phkahler »

bloak wrote: post #41
mech1234 wrote: post #10

A question to Europeans reading this- If you had to assume that U.S. 5G equipment manufacturers would provide backdoors to U.S. officials, and Chinese 5G equipment manufacturers would provide backdoors to Chinese officials, and Europeans had to use one or the other, which would you choose?

The question is insufficiently precise. Some European agencies want the US government to spy on European citizens because it is illegal for them to do it themselves but it's not illegal for them to obtain information about European citizens from US spies. Whether the European citizens want to be spied on is another matter. If you're a European citizen or company you might well prefer to be spied on by the Chinese bec…

>> sometimes provide information to Boeing to help them compete against Airbus, for example.

I've always wondered how that works so that employees dont know about the gov involvement. I suppose they could hire a "consultant", but someone in the company still needs to know dont they?

Re: US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks

#52

Post by zyxzevn »

mech1234 wrote: post #10

A question to Europeans reading this- If you had to assume that U.S. 5G equipment manufacturers would provide backdoors to U.S. officials, and Chinese 5G equipment manufacturers would provide backdoors to Chinese officials, and Europeans had to use one or the other, which would you choose?

A choice between two evils... Hmmmm..

Re: US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks

#53

Post by tjpnz »

r6754dw wrote: post #18
mech1234 wrote: post #10

A question to Europeans reading this- If you had to assume that U.S. 5G equipment manufacturers would provide backdoors to U.S. officials, and Chinese 5G equipment manufacturers would provide backdoors to Chinese officials, and Europeans had to use one or the other, which would you choose?

Definitely the Chinese, simply because their foreign policy is much less violent than that of the US, and they don't try to forcefully export their political and economic system to other countries.

Belt and Road Initiative

Re: US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks

#55

Post by spsful »

ngngngng wrote: post #48

While we're on the subject, is Signal still the best way for me to communicate privately? I've got all the people I communicate with daily using it now, and I feel relatively confident that the communications are private. Are they?

Open Whisper Systems has one of the most secure messaging services on the planet. The US military is rumored to have been telling operatives to use it instead of text on their government phones[1].

Edit: a word

[1] https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2020/01/23/deploye...

Re: US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks

#56

Post by crankylinuxuser »

ngngngng wrote: post #48

While we're on the subject, is Signal still the best way for me to communicate privately? I've got all the people I communicate with daily using it now, and I feel relatively confident that the communications are private. Are they?

Given their demand to your phone number, along with social graph (phone list and communication targets) I do not trust it to be secure and private.

It's probably secure against phone company snooping. But I wouldn't trust it much past that.

Re: US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks

#58

Post by jariel »

ChrisSD wrote: post #7

Reminder: US intelligence lies. They are not unique in this but it's worth repeating. They might be right about Huawei or they might not, either way saying "we totally have proof!" without providing proof is effectively meaningless.

" saying "we totally have proof!" without providing proof is effectively meaningless."

They've provided ostensible 'proof' to the authorities in Germany and the UK who are the entities they are trying to convince of the issue, which is reasonable.

We'll have to wait to see how the Europeans respond.

Re: US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks

#60

Post by jariel »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #28
ChrisSD wrote: post #7

Reminder: US intelligence lies. They are not unique in this but it's worth repeating. They might be right about Huawei or they might not, either way saying "we totally have proof!" without providing proof is effectively meaningless.

If they had proof they would have showed it already. Nothing would help their rhetoric more than cold hard facts. If they haven't done it, it means: a) there isn't any backdoor, or b) exposing their backdoors would expose their own backdoors. I'm betting on b.

"If they had proof they would have showed it already. "

A) They did show 'proof' ostensibly, to the specific agencies of interest i.e. UK/Germany.

B) Your 'a' and 'b' are missing the most important point, in that the revelation of their knowledge may compromise some ongoing intelligence program. The information may very well have been provided by spies who'd be put at risk.

Literally yesterday WaPo published a story on the most comprehensive US intelligence program ever and it quite nicely illustrated the challenges of how to reveal how much you know, and the consequences therein.

This is not 'open source land' where we like complete transparency, it's a different game.

C) There's also another issue, and that this may not be 'black and white'. For example, the ostensible 'back door' may not be clear cut: it may be that it doesn't yet exist, but there are elements in the design prepared for backdoors to be very easily added at a later date.

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