Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 84 posts

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#31

Post by NicoJuicy »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #25
motohagiography wrote: post #13

Huawei will likely become the main competition for NSO group and companies like it, but that's the least of the worlds worries. Governments with resource wealth don't need large public services that would operate a sophisticated intelligence service, so they outsource it. So far these governments have been doing point targeting against dissidents w/ mercenary surveillance companies, but it's possible these companies…

Sadly it has been shown the United States circa 2019 is not an ally anymore ... it is an alien country to most of us now where you have somehow elected a nativist leader who is a racist. At this stage for us Africans the Chinese seems like a more dependable and friendlier lot.

It's still an ally, more than the Chinese will ever be.

Just wait and see, the loans you are getting ( not investments) are for Chinese workers. The loans are at 4-6% if the work isn't executed by Chinese workers.

That's not an ally

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#32

Post by rntksi »

weq wrote: post #11

TDLR; Company owned by oppressive regime helps other oppressive regimes prosper in exchange for unfetted access to the countries resources. There is news here. But its not about spying. https://greenworldwarriors.com/2019/03/06/ugandas-main-asset... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2134438/chin...

Quoted directly from the article:

"The Journal investigation didn’t turn up evidence of spying by or on behalf of Beijing in Africa. Nor did it find that Huawei executives in China knew of, directed or approved the activities described. It also didn’t find that there was something particular about the technology in Huawei’s network that made such activities possible."

There were activities that infringed privacy, but (I believe) not attributable to Huawei hardware or anything. In the article it mentions Huawei employees helping the govt get malware/insider onto the Whatsapp group chat.

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#33

Post by rolltiide »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #31
tibbydudeza wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly it has been shown the United States circa 2019 is not an ally anymore ... it is an alien country to most of us now where you have somehow elected a nativist leader who is a racist. At this stage for us Africans the Chinese seems like a more dependable and friendlier lot.

It's still an ally, more than the Chinese will ever be. Just wait and see, the loans you are getting ( not investments) are for Chinese workers. The loans are at 4-6% if the work isn't executed by Chinese workers. That's not an ally

[flagged]

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#34

Post by jversd673 »

motohagiography wrote: post #13

Huawei will likely become the main competition for NSO group and companies like it, but that's the least of the worlds worries. Governments with resource wealth don't need large public services that would operate a sophisticated intelligence service, so they outsource it. So far these governments have been doing point targeting against dissidents w/ mercenary surveillance companies, but it's possible these companies…

"The difference is the Party lacks the sentimentality of western countries when it comes to issues of total surveillance and intervention to maintain control"

No, the difference is hypocrisy, and of course tons of daily propaganda from the Western media / Corporations / Governments / intelligence agencies.

https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#35

Post by Nokinside »

Mobile networks can be considered strategic infrastructure. Normally US State Department would be working closely with US companies to push back against Huawei with all kinds of political tie-ins and perks.

Except that the US is not in the market. US based mobile network infrastructure assets (Lucent Technologies and Motorola's wireless network infrastructure business) were sold to Europeans long time ago. Both of them are part of Nokia today. Nokia and Ericsson compete without government support against China backed Huawei and ZTE.

Huawei is most likely government owned/controlled enterprise:

Balding, Christopher and Clarke, Donald C., Who Owns Huawei? (April 17, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3372669 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3372669

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#36

Post by heisenbit »

Mobile infrastructure provider are almost always delivering tech to monitor phone locations and communications. It is not unreasonable to expect them to support of such equipment. What would you do if your job is to support the sold and euphemistically called ‚lawful interception gateway‘ in a place with loose laws? This is mostly dual use tech.

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#37

Post by heisenbit »

majia wrote: post #18
motohagiography wrote: post #13

Huawei will likely become the main competition for NSO group and companies like it, but that's the least of the worlds worries. Governments with resource wealth don't need large public services that would operate a sophisticated intelligence service, so they outsource it. So far these governments have been doing point targeting against dissidents w/ mercenary surveillance companies, but it's possible these companies…

What you said about Huawei is more applicable to Boeing, which sells weapon systems instead of telecom gears. You may want to look at how US companies are involved in arm sales to Saudi. It’s fair that US wants to contain China’s leverage in Africa and maintain its own, but this is a national security priority for US , not “everyone”.

But thankfully that Boing equipment is supported by advisors who‘s behavior is above board. Always!

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#38

Post by Nokinside »

heisenbit wrote: post #36

Mobile infrastructure provider are almost always delivering tech to monitor phone locations and communications. It is not unreasonable to expect them to support of such equipment. What would you do if your job is to support the sold and euphemistically called ‚lawful interception gateway‘ in a place with loose laws? This is mostly dual use tech.

Wassenaar Agreement has export controls on surveillance tools but it's very loose and not legally binding. China is not a member.

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#39

Post by teknologist »

rntksi wrote: post #32
weq wrote: post #11

TDLR; Company owned by oppressive regime helps other oppressive regimes prosper in exchange for unfetted access to the countries resources. There is news here. But its not about spying. https://greenworldwarriors.com/2019/03/06/ugandas-main-asset... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2134438/chin...

Quoted directly from the article: "The Journal investigation didn’t turn up evidence of spying by or on behalf of Beijing in Africa. Nor did it find that Huawei executives in China knew of, directed or approved the activities described. It also didn’t find that there was something particular about the technology in Huawei’s network that made such activities possible." There were activities that infringed privacy, but…

Does it have OTA firmware updates? If yes then anything is possible.

Re: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents

#40

Post by luckylion »

scanny wrote: post #23
majia wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you said about Huawei is more applicable to Boeing, which sells weapon systems instead of telecom gears. You may want to look at how US companies are involved in arm sales to Saudi. It’s fair that US wants to contain China’s leverage in Africa and maintain its own, but this is a national security priority for US , not “everyone”.

Well the difference here is that in a liberal democracy we can prevent that from happening if we wish. Unless we don't have a majority that is https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-vetoes-congres...

> Well the difference here is that in a liberal democracy we can prevent that from happening if we wish.

Since it's been going on for a long time, you either cannot, or you don't want to.

Post reply on HN