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

arstechnica.com

131–140 of 296 posts

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

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Huawei is a global law-enforcement agency and hence can claim lawful interception on all equipment it sells? Doesn't make any sense.

Is NSA a global law-enforcement agency? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/photos-of-an-nsa...

Completely depends on the abilities of the military which enforce the rule.

Violence tends to be the way nations define rules outside their own borders.

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

#132
post #97
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? For one thing, Swedes are less and less excited by the stream of Middle Eastern migrants caused by American adventures there.

https://thediplomat.com/2019/12/china-tries-to-put-sweden-on...

That's the point of the EU - defend interests of the union of relatively small countries against giants like China. NATO is only suited for military action, and who knows how long it's going to last anyway.

Also, probably the point of whatever the fuck Russia is doing with the EAEU (really should've picked a better name if they want it to stick).

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

#133

Note: The following might be considered off-topic. On the otherhand, there might be something nefarious in the SMS network. I found something strange that affects SMS in Canada. You can send the lower case text "secure communication", but it will never be recieved by the recipient. I am not sure if this behavior is reproducible outside of Canada. It might be a software defect, or perhaps there is something capturing…

It's a bit of a leap to assume that behavior like that is evidence of nefarious activity; ask yourself, if you were implementing some sort of secret signalling layer, would you design one that uses simple English words, and whose failure state reveals its presence?

Consider the other cases - it could be something like an anti-spam system; back when MSN Messenger was a thing, it would abruptly close any conversations in which certain virus-related keywords were said (mostly including ".exe", which is how I discovered it), presumably in an attempt to stop them spreading.

Or it could be a bug - there have been plenty of these, from simple strings causing mass IRC disconnections, to eerie conspiracy theories (see "bush hid the facts"[0], a conspiracy caused by a bug in Notepad).

Or it could just be a bit of debug code accidentally being triggered. This past week, I had to explain to some users why a website was talking about "DEAD BEEF". The reason was innocent (glitch in a web server config), but to the end user it was incomprehensible.

All that said, if you want to investigate further, it's simple to disable iMessage on iOS devices. If you go to Settings->Messages, there's a toggle for it.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_hid_the_facts

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

#134
post #122

China's intelligence law requires people or companies to spy when asked. >“request relevant organs, organisations, and citizens provide necessary support, assistance, and cooperation”. According to Article 16, intelligence officials “may enter relevant restricted areas and venues; may learn from and question relevant institutions, organisations, and individuals; and may read or collect relevant files, materials or it…

Counterpoint: CALEA and National Security Letters in the US.

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

#135
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. Bingo, data sharing agreements between intelligence services. NSA can't spy on US citizens but GCHQ can, and GCHQ can't spy ok UK citizens but NSA can. Then just come up with a sharing agreement, and yo…

Five Eyes sees all

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

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Bingo, data sharing agreements between intelligence services. NSA can't spy on US citizens but GCHQ can, and GCHQ can't spy ok UK citizens but NSA can. Then just come up with a sharing agreement, and yo…

Five Eyes sees all

14 eyes see more.

https://restoreprivacy.com/5-eyes-9-eyes-14-eyes/

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

#137
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried that in Quebec from Virgin Mobile (Bell) to Vidéotron using a Samsung S10 and a Samsung A8, it's working fine for me. I can't verify it is send over SMS or MMS though. In theory there's no reason for my cellphone to send it over MMS. The exact word used: secure communication

Turn off your data and disconnect from wifi, then try again. I believe that will force it to send via SMS. You might need to go through your client's app settings. The Google Android client is nice because it displays what protocol it is sending over. It is important to confirm that it is sent over SMS. Also, it is important that the words "secure communication" are sent in all lower case which I see that you did. Th…

I just tried without Wifi and mobile data (good idea!), it was send and received correctly.

I did it from my S10 to someone else A8.

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

#138
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as a US Resident, China has no authority to murder me or put me in a cage like the US Government does. So if I had to choose I would prefer china over the NSA, Of course neither is the best option but ..... if I lived in China the inverse would be true

In western countries you can, in general, publicly mock your leaders on the front steps of your legislature. Try dancing in a Winnie-the-Pooh costume in front of the Great Hall of the People and see what happens...

publicly mock your leaders on the front steps of your legislature

So long as those steps are designated as a "free speech zone".

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

#139

Note: The following might be considered off-topic. On the otherhand, there might be something nefarious in the SMS network. I found something strange that affects SMS in Canada. You can send the lower case text "secure communication", but it will never be recieved by the recipient. I am not sure if this behavior is reproducible outside of Canada. It might be a software defect, or perhaps there is something capturing…

It's a bit of a leap to assume that behavior like that is evidence of nefarious activity; ask yourself, if you were implementing some sort of secret signalling layer, would you design one that uses simple English words, and whose failure state reveals its presence? Consider the other cases - it could be something like an anti-spam system; back when MSN Messenger was a thing, it would abruptly close any conversations…

I am not assuming that it is nafarious, I appologize if I was not clear enough on that point. There are many possible ways it could be the result of a defect and you provided some interesting examples. In either case, it is a curiosity worth investigating.

Thanks for pointing out an easy way to disable imessage on iphone. Apparently after doing that iphone defaults to MMS. It still might be best to just turn off data and wifi.

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

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by the number of wars it started in the last century... it's definitely the American.

I don’t really understand comments like this. US has lots of problems but we do have the semblance of rule of law. We do have the notion of transparency and you do not get sent to a labor camp if you have political views antithetical to the state. The Chinese can and do simply disappear people without the semblance of due process. Their history also is one of ethnic cleansing as the Han people have pushed out or marg…

> I don’t really understand comments like this. US has lots of problems but we do have the semblance of rule of law

I, as a European citizen have no practical way to benefit of that semblance of rule of law.

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