ZTE has partnerships with some of the U.
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- Tianjin University professor on trial for stealing militarily-useful wireless secrets.
In interviews, all of the companies said they had no knowledge of the TCI deal. Several - including HP, Dell, Cisco and Juniper - said in statements they were launching internal investigations after learning about the contract from Reuters. The United States, Europe and many Arab countries accuse Iran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons, which Iran denies.
But Beijing, along with Moscow, has repeatedly vetoed attempts to strengthen sanctions against Tehran.
But no final decision has been made and there is no target date for implementing such a ban. Like most countries, including the United States, Iran requires telephone operators to provide law enforcement authorities with access to communications.
Security flaws in ZTE phones mean they can be hacked to spy on users
Some telecoms equipment makers that previously provided Iran with gear capable of intercepting communications have cut back sales. NSN had provided TCI with a monitoring center capable of intercepting and recording voice calls on its landline and mobile network. Ericsson had sold equipment to Iranian telecoms that included built-in interception capabilities. Even the giant Chinese telecommunications equipment firm Huawei Technologies said it has curtailed new business in Iran.
Both men said that among the items were parts for a surveillance system that can monitor voice, text messaging and internet communications. Huawei is a different story seeing how it's closely working alongside SoftBank, Sprint's parent willing to cede a controlling stake in a combined entity with T-Mobile in exchange for other concessions. Currie is describing both firms as national security risks that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the United States 5G race seeing how crucial of a role is the next generation of wireless connectivity expected to play in the stateside and global economy.
The analyst called for the Federal Communications Commission to focus on the Sprint-Huawei link as part of its merger review, asses the potential damage that relation could cause to the U. The industry watcher is also quick to point out that the possible consequences of Huawei's links to Sprint and its Japanese parent won't be affecting just T-Mobile and Sprint's future subscribers but anyone else who attempts contacting them via voice calls or SMS.
Currie concluded. The bottom line of that train of thought is that Huawei and ZTE should be kept away from any kind of 5G deployment in the U. Both ZTE and Huawei have been defending themselves against allegations they could be used as Beijing's international spying networks for many years now, with their general stance on the matter remaining largely unchanged throughout that time. Both companies repeatedly dismissed those accusations as baseless, claiming their American rivals are just as susceptible to government pressure in terms of information requests.
That argument didn't live up to significant scrutiny seeing how Beijing is operating under laws that allow it to force local companies into broad cooperation efforts with little justification, largely due to its strict censorship regulations.
Spy claims
But they too use Chinese firms as not just suppliers for certain things but also for partial and final assembly, because it is that much cheaper to do there. So, what do we do? Well, we can't prohibit American firms from doing business with Chinese companies or foreign firms that use Chinese-made components just because we are nervous they might use their products to spy on us. We can set internal procurement controls on certain types of products and have rigorous monitoring and testing of stuff before it ends up being used in government agencies, but that's about it.
There is no practical or legislative way of keeping China out of products being brought into the US.
Where's the proof?
Such efforts would be counterproductive. That being said, the threat of our devices being used to spy on us is very much real -- but China should not be the focus of concern. Also: Apple transfers iCloud operation in China to a local government-backed firm.
I believe there needs to be an international effort to monitor and certify consumer electronics so that we can better understand the nature of these threats and then take appropriate action when they are discovered. The software development and hacker communities residing within the major technology firms already have informal inter-firm efforts to monitor embedded operating systems and applications for potential malware.
To date, they've done a very good job overall of discovering major security exploits and malware, but we can improve this by formalizing how this is done by having our government form and fund organizations with our allies -- as part of overall international treaty negotiations -- with the express effort of increasing due diligence in analysis and monitoring of software that runs on consumer electronics. The efforts to date have only covered "In-band" types of exploits and malware.
This needs to continue, but we have to go deeper. The real concern would be "out-of-band" exploits and malware that would not be discovered within applications or operating systems, but in the components, such as firmware or hard-coded routines within the semiconductors themselves like a baseband communications chip that would not be detected as a high-level process. So far, no such state-sponsored malware or an exploit has ever been detected in a semiconductor component originating from China, or, at least, such a discovery has never been validated.
All we have received so far is an accusation from a reporter at Bloomberg that certain SuperMicro server systems had a chip that was intercepting and forwarding network traffic from data centers of 30 American corporations, including Apple. That has so far been proven to be categorically false by SuperMicro , as well as Apple and Amazon. The only comparable out-of-band exploits that have been discovered are the Spectre and Meltdown bugs in Intel, AMD, and ARM processors, which are categorized as unintentional but exploitable architectural flaws and common issues related to modern microprocessor design -- and they have nothing to do with China.
Oh, and the most significant discovered out-of-band exploit prior to those two? Also Intel in origin. Also: In rapid onslaught, Chinese phone makers take control. So, should we be concerned about out-of-band exploits and potential malware in a society that is increasing its use of electronic devices in every aspect of our lives? Should we worry that China is plotting some master plan to Hoover all our data and penetrate our government?
ZTE Grand X Max +
Should we worry that China is plotting some master plan to Hoover all our data and penetrate our government and corporations using undetectable malware embedded in the fundamental components found in consumer electronics manufactured in that country? There's a chance it could happen, and we should be vigilant and take our best efforts to monitor that it isn't happening, but we can't preoccupy ourselves with this. Let American consumers decide which products they want to buy. Legislation that prevents competition is not only stupid and unproductive but also puts our citizens at a disadvantage by not allowing them to purchase inexpensive products that other countries can freely and easily access.
Should you be allowed to buy Chinese brands of phones in the US? Is Congress and the Trump administration interfering with the fundamental principles of capitalism?
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