New Bill Bans US Government Agencies Using Contractors with Huawei or ZTE Tech

Megalith

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Congress is introducing a bill called the “Defending U.S. Government Communications Act” to ban Huawei and ZTE products from US government contracts. The legislation stems from intelligence reports that suggest these companies are subject to state influence. One fear is that the Chinese government would be able to access US business communications.

It builds on past action against Huawei (the world’s top seller of telecom equipment) and ZTE (ranked fifth), which included a ban on ZTE selling products to the US government agencies in 2013. A further proposal lodged last year aimed to restrict the Pentagon from buying equipment from Chinese or Russian telecommunications companies.
 
I don't know much about ZTE but they should ban use of Huawei based on the fact their security practices are shit. Never mind any secret back door, who needs it when the front door is hanging wide open?

 
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Doesn't surprise me. Given their banning of DJI and now these companies. China does wield the power to put backdoors into their products and some products, such as the DJI drones have been flagged for such activity.

The thing is, US companies are being forced to do the same things (as we learned with the Snowdown leaks).
 
There was once a day when sourcing contracts was ALWAYS domestic or at the very least sourced from your closest allies.

It's a logical assumption that China is demanding the same back doors into communications equipment that our governments do.
 
Makes perfect sense.

I recently spoke to a Dell employee. He said in their negotiations with Foxconn to manufacture U.S. designed boards for their laptops a few years ago, the Foxconn engineers brought up the legal Requirement to include some sort of tracking chip for the Chinese government.

Dell rejected it out of hand it was never mentioned again.

Now a few years later the design of these same boards have been outsourced and are designed "to Dell specifications" by foxconn.

Want to bet they are probably getting some sort of tracking technology?

I guess my point is, yes, very good idea to ban use of devices designed in China, especially those by Huaiwei, a subsidiary of China Telecom, a part of the authoritarian Chinese government

Just don't get too comfortable with non-Chinese brands these days either, when a lot of the design is outsourced. It's one thing for our devices to be manufactured over there. That's bad enough. Design however? That is a completely unacceptable risk.

If I were a government agency or an enterprise buyer, I'd include some sort of "all boards and integrated circuits must be designed in the US or at least in Western Europe. No Chinese designs allowed." clause.
 
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Makes me wonder if most zero day vulnerabilities are intentional.

Yep, as soon as a "good guy" sees a "bad guy" using the same backdoor, the Zero Day is issued.

Microsoft, Google and Intel know lots about this, as they all try to juggle with what each government orders from them, whether it's to ignore something, or delay a patch that closes the door, or to deliberately unlock a door.
 
Globalization.

"Globalisation" has been an active plan since the last time the major trading countries starting looking inward and helped deepen the great depression.

All through that time countries have been careful about intelligence leaks. Leaking is so much easier when you don't even have to steal a briefcase. This is literally a story about maintaining the status quo. In effect, it's a story for the sake of a story.
 
In other news, US also decided it had to ban Apple since they were all manufactured in China and all sorts of nefarious things could've been done. Then they decided to ban anything not made in USA to be extra safe. Unfortunately, they were left with nothing since USA doesn't make anything; they barely assemble 51% stateside.
 
As far as I'm concerned, if they are cozy with a rival cyber govt, ie non Ally, it makes sense not to let them in on your potentially important defense infrastructure.

Made in vs made by.

If the rep on Huawei's and ZTE's close relation with the Chinese Govt is true, why take the risk. As for non govt free market trade is concerned, ATT and all can do as they please with their own businesses. Don't moan and whine when your company's rep is trashed by doing shady crap....I doubt they really have much of a choice anyway when It comes to functioning from within China.
 
In other news, US also decided it had to ban Apple since they were all manufactured in China and all sorts of nefarious things could've been done. Then they decided to ban anything not made in USA to be extra safe. Unfortunately, they were left with nothing since USA doesn't make anything; they barely assemble 51% stateside.
Pen and paper brother, pen and paper.
 
hehe there is no way in hell Apple would anything be put into their devices they didn't approve.
 
I don't know much about ZTE but they should ban use of Huawei based on the fact their security practices are shit. Never mind any secret back door, who needs it when the front door is hanging wide open?

Damn I was really looking forward to buying the Huawei USG6320... /s
 
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