'Safe like China': In Argentina, ZTE finds eager buyer for surveillance tech

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To be sure, authorities in many democratic nations including the United States and Britain also make wide use of surveillance technology. However, human rights watchdogs say China abuses these powers to suppress dissent and protest by its own citizens. China has built an extensive video surveillance system and installed smartphone monitoring technology in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where more than a million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in so-called vocational training centers.

The Chinese official in Buenos Aires dismissed U. UL] are spearheading. The official, who asked not to be named, said Latin American countries had a growing need to improve security, creating an opportunity for China to sell surveillance technology at a competitive price. There have been no expressions of concern about the deal in Argentina, where China - a major trading partner and financier - is viewed as an important ally and not a threat.

Jujuy officials have reason to be open to affordable Chinese tech.

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The province is one of the poorest in Argentina and has crime rates slightly above the national average. Security Minister Ekel Meyer said in an interview in San Salvador de Jujuy that residents accepted the watchful eye of the security cameras in exchange for safer streets. He wants to take it even further by expanding the system to include facial recognition technology, a tool China has been rolling out as part of its domestic surveillance web. Over the last decade these spying allegations have consistently hounded Huawei, however, no clear evidence has ever been presented to prove there are backdoors or surveillance spyware installed on any Huawei devices.

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An expansive month security review from US government agencies was reported to have concluded in that there was no evidence Huawei was working with the Chinese government to spy on US citizens. Experts working on the US government review at the time suggested that, while no singular "smoking gun" could be found proving Huawei equipment had been compromised, its systems were "riddled with holes.

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For some, questions over how secure Huawei equipment actually is, are merely questions of potential. Australia, New Zealand, and Japan have already banned Huawei equipment from forthcoming 5G infrastructure roll-outs, claiming the risks for 5G network gear to be compromised through software updates make security evaluations incredibly difficult.

This idea that the security risk inherent to Huawei's equipment is one based on possibility rather than actuality is frequently raised by US lawmakers and experts. Any supposedly safe Chinese product is one firmware update away from being an insecure Chinese product. However, not every Western government is jumping on the Huawei prohibition bandwagon.

Literally hours after Trump's recent executive order that moved toward a total US Huawei ban, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed his country would not be proceeding with similar actions, despite months of rumors his government was moving in that direction. Several European Union reviews are currently underway examining security procedures to accompany 5G infrastructure roll-outs, and despite significant lobbying from US diplomats calling for the EU to institute an outright ban, many union leaders are suggesting the better way forward will be to establish clear safeguards. Dinha suggests the way forward is better, more transparent network security, as there will always be potential for core equipment to be compromised.

Although currently there has been no clear evidence showing Huawei equipment contains security "backdoors" allowing Chinese government access, rumors still swirl that evidence may exist. Just over the last month several stories have appeared suggesting the truth is out there.

One story alleged the CIA has proof Huawei received funding from Chinese state security agencies, while another revealed the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD has discovered an elusive Huawei backdoor in a major local telecom firm. However, both stories are still very much unverified, and so far every significant investigation into Huawei's association with Chinese intelligence has found no explicit evidence to solidify the years of allegations.

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It is also difficult to separate this latest major US move from its ongoing trade war with China. Last year Huawei overtook Apple to become the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. This happened alongside the company revealing it was stepping out of the general US consumer tech market.

So while a US Huawei ban is not particularly relevant to the company's global market share in smartphones, laptops and telecommunications equipment, it may affect the its ability to produce that tech for its international market. These problems are compounded by the loss of access to US-built software, specifically that from Google, which is likely to influence the future purchasing decisions of consumers around the globe.

Google's move to suspend business operations with Huawei to comply with the US government ban has sparked confusion amongst owners of existing devices worried they would no longer have access to updates for Android OS, and Google services such as Maps, YouTube and the Play store. Both Google and Huawei have sought to allay fears by saying existing devices wouldn't be affected, and yesterday the US Commerce Department awarded Huawei a license allowing it to purchase US goods until August 19, giving mobile device owners time to access software updates and telecom providers time to seek alternatives.

But once that date passes, owners of existing devices face the prospect of not being able to access any future updates, potentially making their devices less secure, while future devices will likely not have access to the above mentioned Google services through dedicated apps. There are rumors Huawei has long expected this potential scenario, so it has been developing an alternative operating system for its smartphones. But what does this mean for its burgeoning laptop market? Its sleek MateBook has been becoming increasingly impressive over its last few generations, yet this new US ban would essentially disallow Microsoft from supplying Huawei with a Windows OS.

It is unclear how all this will ultimately play out. More investigations will roll out, trying to uncover the elusive, and possibly non-existent, piece of evidence to finally show whether Huawei is conspiring with the Chinese government. The repercussions of the US ban will not only harm Huawei but a raft of other American businesses that sell goods to the massive company. This recent escalation in the conflict by the United States does not bring us closer to ending these tensions, but until there is clear evidence Huawei is a company not to be trusted, all current prohibitions are ultimately based on potential future scenarios and not publicly available facts.

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What evidence is there to prove Huawei is planting backdoor access into its equipment so data can be accessed by Chinese intelligence agencies? View 1 Image. Long standing ties Huawei's deep ties with the Chinese government go all the way back to the company's founding in None of the four big nationwide carriers have Huawei or ZTE gear in their networks, leaving the action as a problem confined to smaller, rural carriers that often thought they did the government a favor by spending USF money efficiently.

At this point, the bans on Huawei are more of a theoretical concern. If you do stand a chance of using your devices on a network that uses Huawei or ZTE gear, should you be concerned about your own security? You should start by asking yourself a basic question: Who might be out to get you? Another thing to do is to understand that not all of the communications channels on your phone are equally secure.

The absence of that in garden-variety phone calls and text messages leaves them vulnerable to eavesdropping and makes them the least secure options, Singel says. RCS , the messaging upgrade Google has been pushing , will encrypt messages in transit but still allow a carrier to peek at them—and carriers continue to sandbag the standard anyway,.