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Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

theguardian.com

11–20 of 59 posts

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#11
post #10

Funny, a couple days ago the title was "Huawei spied on Dutch bla bla". Today it's "may have spied". The original article (well, the translation bondarchuk posted here) says they had the access. Not that they did anything with it.

You're tldr; is a bit wrong.

They had unauthorized access, which means they used it. It's not clear for what currently, that's why it describes the scope of access.

They also found that the application can tap entire phone calls, which was forbidden.

Edit:

What do you think the following means ( Dutch is my native tongue, lol):

> ‘Ongecontroleerde en ongeautoriseerde toegang vanuit China heeft na 28 oktober 2009 daadwerkelijk plaatsgevonden’, vermeldt het rapport in april 2010.

Translation: Unchecked and unauthorized access has taken place from china after 28 October 2009.

Original article: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#12
It's still the same news and it's still:

- could have eavesdropped - likely wouldn't have been found out - but there is no indication that they did so

In the end Huawei (the company) has no benefits and IMHO no intention to spy on the Dutch mobile network. The problem is that the employees of Huawei, independent of nationality, might be a different story. (Or more precise China or the USA pressuring employees or installing "their people" in the right technical positions).

But as a side note that is also true for the USA, not just China.

It's just that for all western/(somewhat proper) democratic countries the US is much closer ideological and political then China, even with all the faults the USA has.

Like e.g China is a "de-facto" one party system (theoretical they have more) and the US is a "de-facto" two party system. Which is better but still not proper democratic.

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#13
post #10

Funny, a couple days ago the title was "Huawei spied on Dutch bla bla". Today it's "may have spied". The original article (well, the translation bondarchuk posted here) says they had the access. Not that they did anything with it.

You're tldr; is a bit wrong. They had unauthorized access, which means they used it. It's not clear for what currently, that's why it describes the scope of access. They also found that the application can tap entire phone calls, which was forbidden. Edit: What do you think the following means ( Dutch is my native tongue, lol): > ‘Ongecontroleerde en ongeautoriseerde toegang vanuit China heeft na 28 oktober 2009 daad…

It says they were doing the network maintenance, so my guess is they cut some corners and had their people in China do it fast.

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#14
It's interesting to see how this speculative piece keeps popping up, whereas GCHQ's THREE YEAR long hack [1] of Belgium's largest ISP was largely ignored. China bashing is easier than Five-Eyes bashing?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Socialist

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#15
post #10

Funny, a couple days ago the title was "Huawei spied on Dutch bla bla". Today it's "may have spied". The original article (well, the translation bondarchuk posted here) says they had the access. Not that they did anything with it.

You're tldr; is a bit wrong. They had unauthorized access, which means they used it. It's not clear for what currently, that's why it describes the scope of access. They also found that the application can tap entire phone calls, which was forbidden. Edit: What do you think the following means ( Dutch is my native tongue, lol): > ‘Ongecontroleerde en ongeautoriseerde toegang vanuit China heeft na 28 oktober 2009 daad…

I don't get it. Won't your logic imply that all locksmiths are trespassers now? Because, you know, they have unauthorized access to most premises secured by locks.

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#16

Interesting how this 3 day old story is getting twisted more and more. Can we stick to the facts? Huawei was used for outsourcing, Huawei obviously has root access. If you outsource your IT to a company with known ties to a foreign government you can't complain about them having sensitive access.

Just because you have a root access, it doesn't mean you can just make yourself at home and grab any data you want.

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#17

Interesting how this 3 day old story is getting twisted more and more. Can we stick to the facts? Huawei was used for outsourcing, Huawei obviously has root access. If you outsource your IT to a company with known ties to a foreign government you can't complain about them having sensitive access.

Yeah I guess this is like having Kaspersky and then complaining that data was exfiltrated to the FSB or something. Or you know, know who you are dealing with when you outsource.

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#18

Interesting how this 3 day old story is getting twisted more and more. Can we stick to the facts? Huawei was used for outsourcing, Huawei obviously has root access. If you outsource your IT to a company with known ties to a foreign government you can't complain about them having sensitive access.

I don't think the people complaining are the ones who chose to give root access to a company with known ties to a foreign government.

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're tldr; is a bit wrong. They had unauthorized access, which means they used it. It's not clear for what currently, that's why it describes the scope of access. They also found that the application can tap entire phone calls, which was forbidden. Edit: What do you think the following means ( Dutch is my native tongue, lol): > ‘Ongecontroleerde en ongeautoriseerde toegang vanuit China heeft na 28 oktober 2009 daad…

I don't get it. Won't your logic imply that all locksmiths are trespassers now? Because, you know, they have unauthorized access to most premises secured by locks.

No, just the locksmiths with a bad reputation.

Would you hire a locksmith if he had a record of stalking people?

Re: Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’

#20
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're tldr; is a bit wrong. They had unauthorized access, which means they used it. It's not clear for what currently, that's why it describes the scope of access. They also found that the application can tap entire phone calls, which was forbidden. Edit: What do you think the following means ( Dutch is my native tongue, lol): > ‘Ongecontroleerde en ongeautoriseerde toegang vanuit China heeft na 28 oktober 2009 daad…

It says they were doing the network maintenance, so my guess is they cut some corners and had their people in China do it fast.

It doesn't say that ( I speak Dutch ).

It says that they could tap phone-calls in KPN's network anytime and anywhere without anyone knowing.

It's not what it states. It says that Huawei does the core of the mobile network ( eg. switches). If they want access, they have to ask it and they will generate a security code.

> Als Huawei erbij wil, moet het bedrijf bij het Netwerk Operations Center van KPN een veiligheidscode aanvragen. Daarna bereiden technici van KPN de toegang voor. Alleen dan kan Huawei in het hart van het netwerk.

But Huawei seems to get access from China outside of this procedure.

> Maar het gaat toch verkeerd. Huawei blijkt zich buiten de procedure om vanuit China toegang tot de kern van het netwerk te verschaffen. Veiligheidsmensen van KPN weten dat dit gebeurt, maar doen niets. ‘Ongecontroleerde en ongeautoriseerde toegang vanuit China heeft na 28 oktober 2009 daadwerkelijk plaatsgevonden’, vermeldt het rapport in april 2010.

They found an additional serious breach. A program to listen to every phone call within the network of KPN.

> zes Chinese medewerkers werken met een programma dat hen in staat stelt om elk telefoongesprek dat via KPN gaat mee te luisteren. Ook dat is in strijd met afspraken.

Listening to an entire phone call is forbidden.

> Huawei heeft contractueel de mogelijkheid om voor kwaliteitsdoeleinden een gesprek kortstondig – enkele seconden – te volgen, dat heet inluisteren. Het hele gesprek volgen – meeluisteren – is verboden.

Source: the original article from the volkskrant: https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/huawei-kon-alle...

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