In the latest round between the US and Huawei in the Trade War, Huawei is now accusing the US of harassing its employees and launching cyber-attacks against Huawei’s network to gain illegal access.
Threats and Cyber-Attacks
Huawei says that law enforcement agencies are now threatening Huawei employees. It’s likely that law enforcement agencies are talking with Huawei officials to get them to come forward about the company’s underhanded dealings, seeing that the company is based in China, where much of its work is kept out of the eye of the US Government.
The US Government is accusing Huawei of espionage and being a “national security threat” for Americans.
The US is also accused of launching cyber-attacks to break into Huawei’s network, though there is no word on how Huawei obtained evidence of a US cyber-attack. The US Government has used its cyber skills in the past to warn companies about backdoors and software loopholes and vulnerabilities.
The Federal Government did this very thing in the case of Lenovo with its Superfish software installed on PCs that was meant to show targeted ads. Superfish quickly became malware. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement to Lenovo PC users to remove the pre-installed software from their computers once Lenovo issued a software removal tool.
What can be known about Huawei’s knowledge of cyber-attacks, though, is that the company does consist of technicians, the same technicians that have been used to break into encrypted platform WhatsApp to spy on a political enemy of an African government, the Wall Street Journal reported some weeks ago.
Huawei technicians only took two days to break into the encrypted messages and files on the phone of the intended political threat, though African technicians couldn’t break through it.
African governments such as Uganda and Zambia have said that, despite their work with an Israeli company for digital surveillance, nothing has come as close to being as technologically advanced as Huawei’s setup.
Huawei has also set up digital surveillance “safe cities” in the African governments of Uganda and Zambia, so the country could have digital surveillance of its own set up at company headquarters.
Huawei Ban History
Huawei is at odds with the US Government over espionage. The Shenzhen-based manufacturer and former Android OEM was placed on the US Entity List by way of an Executive Order signed by US President Donald Trump in mid-May. Google placed Huawei’s Android license in revocation mode, and, despite the three-month reprieve the US gave Huawei (and the new additional one), Huawei is no longer able to use Google’s Android software on its new devices.
The company has already issued a statement that its upcoming flagship, the Mate 30, does not have Google Play Store access, nor does it run Android. Rumors that Huawei was testing out its new HarmonyOS (“HongMeng OS” in China) on the Mate 30 now make sense.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at the G20 summit in Osaka Japan this summer, with Trump seemingly open to negotiations with China. Due to pressure from American high-tech companies and the loss of Huawei’s $11 billion it pours into the American economy annually, Trump allowed Qualcomm, Intel, Micron, and others to continue selling mobile device components to Huawei.
The government has said that it would allow other companies to apply for licenses to sell goods and services to Huawei, but it’s been said recently that the government denied 130 license applications to sell goods and services to the Chinese manufacturer.
Huawei has been accused of trade theft with Deutsche Telekom-owned wireless carrier T-Mobile. The carrier says that Huawei tried to steal the work it placed into Tappy, it’s own smartphone-testing robot. The company has also been accused of illegal smuggling, with US officials having tracked down in recent weeks a plan by Huawei to smuggle Huawei phones into Mexico, paint them in disguise, then send them to the US for sale.