Huawei ... spying on us or not ?

Forums › Off topic › Huawei ... spying on us or not ?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#602166 29-Mar-2012 20:20

vinnieg:
surfisup1000:
I do find the anti-american sentiment that runs within many New Zealanders puzzling.

You don't think it's to do with any previous matters, or the amount of situations where the US has almost bullied NZ into complying with it? Or for that matter, making us join in their pointless wars?

Not at all, since Australians don't seem to exhibit the same trait.

I think it may be that New Zealanders tend towards socialism, the antithesis of Americans.

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#602168 29-Mar-2012 20:21

I would be more worried about Apple and MS than Huawei. What does little NZ have of interest compared to Aust, US, EU and russia?

kyhwana2

2563 posts

Uber Geek

#602173 29-Mar-2012 20:25

surfisup1000:

So, who votes in the government? Just saying.

In america? The electorial college votes in the president..

tangent

14 posts

Geek

#602174 29-Mar-2012 20:26

We have the perfect orgy of Huawei Deployment and US ownership in 2degrees.

I know some of their vendor work with 2degrees is 'developmental', I also know that mother company U.S. owned Trilogy have a pipe straight into the network with (presumably) full access if they want.

So if anything the 2degrees experiment is the perfect testbed for the U.S. and China to spy on each others technology.

surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#602198 29-Mar-2012 21:00

kyhwana2:
surfisup1000:

So, who votes in the government? Just saying.

In america? The electorial college votes in the president..

Exactly, the people get to vote so the government is an general extension of the will of the people.

Regarding Huawei, ....

"the country's top signals intelligence expert, Des Ball, said yesterday there was "no doubt" Huawei partnered with China's espionage services"

And, one of Huaweis top executives previously worked for the Chinese Spy agency.

I'm not saying Huawei are engaging in such activities, but, that the risk is enough to be cautious.

oxnsox

1923 posts

Uber Geek

#602224 29-Mar-2012 21:43

Politics and market protection...
American policies and politicians protecting their own manufacturers and ear-grabbing their closest allies for support.

We've been using, products from, Apple, and Blackberry, and Google, and MS for years..... unless you're determined to stick to pen and ink, there's probably not much of your electronic life they don't have access to.... if they wanted. Doesn't stop one being wary though

theEd

341 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#602240 29-Mar-2012 22:19

surfisup1000: Exactly, the people get to vote so the government is an general extension of the will of the people.

Having the ability to vote doesn't make you a democracy. Particularly if that ability is restricted to only some citizens, and the popular vote isn't directly used to form the government.

Back to the topic, however, I think many people are forgetting that virtually nothing in the world of IT is made outside of China. If it's not Huawei, it'll just be another brand that is at least manufactured in China, even if not a Chinese company.

There's also more than one vendor involved in any install - will there be Cisco switches/routers involve? Much of their gear is made in China, and has provided the Chinese government with much of the equipment used for censorship of the internet.

It's virtually impossible now to build a system without any Chinese companies being involved.

Heck, it's safe to assume the GCSB use a lot of Chinese equipment internally, since noone else produces PCs. If there's going to be a security leak anywhere, it'll be there.

vinnieg

2260 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#602569 30-Mar-2012 15:20

surfisup1000:

Not at all, since Australians don't seem to exhibit the same trait.

I think it may be that New Zealanders tend towards socialism, the antithesis of Americans.

Socialism is just a word that Fox News, and Republicans use. When the Obama administration, or any other country, has different views than them. They love to pull it out at the drop of a hat!

New Zealand is in now way a socialist country, and like most countries, will never be.

Also, accusing people of being arm chair critics? A lot of us on here actually have ties into various industries, round NZ.

I can tell you what one of the govt departments, relating to security. Ordered a bunch of Cisco routers from the US suppliers last year. Clearly stating they wouldn't accept Made in China routers. They got delivered ones "Made in the USA", but on removal of the Made in the USA stickers, had Made in China, straight underneath.

As with others above, I'd be much more worried about Apple, Facebook, and Google granting governments access to information. Since a lot more is stored, and given away to those websites/companies. I'm sure I have more information with those companies, than I do on the simple internet banking, and occasional email that goes through my PC.

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

tangent

14 posts

Geek

#602649 30-Mar-2012 17:42

There is definately something in chip manufacturers using the physical layer to spy though.

Look into streambox and their "special" codec.

gzt

16815 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#602675 30-Mar-2012 18:54

tangent: Look into streambox and their "special" codec.

I looked, could not find anything. Got any links?

langi27

665 posts

Ultimate Geek

#602758 30-Mar-2012 22:19

What about the global support agreements these major vendors have with each of the telcos

Alcatel-Lucent - Telecom
Nokia-Siemens - Vodafone
Huawei - 2degrees

These guys actually pay for gloabl support which means that ALU, NSN and Huawei could (in the event of a major world war or international incident) shut down or seriously disable each of the operators network should they want to. They have full access at every level right down to your handset.

This isn't a possibilty its a requirement for global support.

If you think they can't access your handset, activate your microphone, and internal GPS to figure out where you are and what your doing you are living in the 18th century.

Athlonite

1828 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#602804 31-Mar-2012 08:43

Lurch:
sleemanj: All countries conduct espionage, including our own. ?It's not practical to exclude products or businesses because they might do something dodgy.?

Hardware/brands are being excluded in various places all the time. ;-) Many Governments will only use (as an example) American built computer hardware which are made on a highly secure production line.

I'd say the threat is real, although it's not a risk at this point. One just has to put in place safe guards and monitor what is happening.

It's a shame then that the US military didn't do the same thing with regards to 3rd party components in their missile guidance systems may have saved them millions and provided a few jobs to boot

old3eyes

9109 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#602826 31-Mar-2012 10:07

I see the NZ Herald in their usual sensationalist way have a full page today devoted to this.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10795703

Regards,

Old3eyes

gzt

16815 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#602855 31-Mar-2012 11:30

I have no knowledge of the contract, but Huawei will undoubtedly cost a crapload less for install and maintenance requirements, compared to say, Cisco. My guess is most of the configuration will be done locally anyway, and Huawei will be happy with a much lower margin on the local labour (and might even use more of it) compared to other bidders - U.S firms are refocusing business on getting as much as possible from these 'services'.

In the Huawei UK install the Herald mentions, the security agencies went through a lot of equipment and didn't find anything. The Herald leaves a lot of these loose ends hanging.

In any case - there are tons of Huawei equipment in use in the U.S already.

The Australian government is not very popular in Aus at the moment so on their part IMHO it is just silly public posing.

Can anyone here link to exactly what Huawei is supplying for the NZ UFB in moderate detail?

hdinsider

552 posts

Ultimate Geek

#603065 31-Mar-2012 22:14

Just in case, I have wrapped my Huawei in aluminium foil and microwaved it (on "high"- essential) for 1 minute- than turned it over and another 10 seconds. (Don't worry- I made sure that the microwave was Japanese Japanese- not made elsewhere).

Long story, but now the phone doesn't go, but I don't want to take it back for CGA cos they will know where I am. Luckily they cant find me in the Urewera's... whew.

Edit: Oh no, I bought it with my onecard.... they're surely onto me now. If I don't repo

don't mess with me.... i'm the hd insider....

1 | 2 | 3 | 4