Huawei Phones Likely Spying on You Sez US Intel Chiefs

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Huawei has been in the news lately for pushing fake reviews at Best Buy. It seems that Huawei is also catching bit of flack for the worst/best presentation at CES 2018. However, all that pales in comparison to the CIA, FBI, and NSA suggesting that even private citizens not use Huawei phones due to suspected security risks being associated with those phones. No telling what information is being sent where by its Kirin AI processor.



"We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks," FBI Director Chris Wray testified.

"That provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure," Wray said. "It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage."
 
Kirin AI processor? I thought the Kirin was just China's answer to the qualcomm snapdragon?
I'm sure it's just marketing, but damn, slap AI to anything and it's now new and cool.
Also from what i've heard, it's not a bad chip performance wise, but there's little to no documentation on it, which is something that most chip manufacturers really make sure they have around for development.
 
Or MS, or anything with a CPU of meaningful power?
Let's be real on this shit.
Since unique IDs on CPUs and 'mangement engines' c'mon.
 
I'm as cynical as the next guy so this whole "Watch out for China!" bullshit coming from an agency responsible for the bulk collection of data and use of secret courts in clear violation of the 4th Amendment really grinds on me.
 
Huawei is just playing catchup with Google, Windows 10, the NSA and Amazon. What's the big deal?
 
I think FBI Director Chris Wray should stick to being a cop and stay clear of the IT related Intelligence field.

If anyone wants to know if a phone is calling home all they have to do is intercept everything from the phone. For a leader in an organization that uses tools like Stingrays and NITs, this is either an incredibly ignorant comment or he's trying to snowball people which is incredulously arrogant.


Oh yes, this explains it ......

Christopher Asher Wray (born December 17, 1966) is an American lawyer currently serving as the eighth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Click to expand...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_A._Wray

So he isn't even a cop, he's a political lawyer, cut his teeth with the Enron case and others like it. I'm sure he has a lot of knowledge, might even be a great Director of the FBI, but when it comes to technology and Intelligence Collection or Counter-intelligence Operations ...... He needs to bring his specialists and let them talk for him.
 
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lcpiper said:
So he isn't even a cop, he's a political lawyer, cut his teeth with the Enron case and other like it. I'm sure he has a lot of knowledge, might even be a great Director of the FBI, but when it comes to technology and Intelligence Collection or Counter-
intelligence Operations ...... He needs to bring his specialists and let them talk for him.
Click to expand...

Point of order: Pretty much every director since Hoover was an attorney and not law enforcement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Sessions

"William Steele Sessions (born May 27, 1930) is an American civil servant who served as a federal judge and Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Webster

"...was a federal judge before becoming Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1978 to 1987, and then Director of Central Intelligence (CIA) from 1987 to 1991[3]—the only person to have held both these positions."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._Adams

"James Blackburn Adams (born December 21, 1926) is a former attorney, Texas legislator, and acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."


This is just a select list. I could go on with more links...
 
pcgeekesq said:
Huawei doesn't donate to American politicians, would be my guess. That's what the Intelligence guys meant by "don't share our values."
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The FBI isn't an Intelligence service.

He's not an "intelligence guy".
 
keep-calm-and-lets-get-back-to-the-topic.png
 
Likely or is? No one is smart enough to pull apart a phone and see if it's trying to do something malicious?

The only thing that I've gleaned so far from all of this is that Huawei has probably told the US agencies no as far as getting access to their devices. I mean it's not like the top phone makers in the US are not foreign entities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung - South Korean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC - Taiwan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Corporation - South Korean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Mobility - "American" but owned by the Chinese corporation Lenovo

So the about the only one missing from that list is Apple, which is American based. Yet most of the components for all of the above are made in China anyway, so I'm failing to see how Huawei is that much different than the rest.

If you were really concerned about Chinese spying, you'd stop importing all of the phones from China. That means that we'd just need to ban all smart phones as they have the possibility of having spyware embedded on them.
 
Based on all the comments here, you'll probably be better off using a Chinese phone and doing illegal activities with it than any other phone mainly because law enforcement has even less access to it than the others.
 
If our government had any actual proof that they caused a national security issue, the phones would be outright banned. This is a cold war fear campaign.
 
I've been saying this forever. Can't trust them, but too many fanboys push back because they love their cheap devices.

Yes, Google collects data too, but they at least have a public privacy policy, and you know their incentive is to serve you ads.

A company that has known ties to the authoritarian Chinese government is a huge risk.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I've been saying this forever. Can't trust them, but too many fanboys push back because they love their cheap devices.

Yes, Google collects data too, but they at least have a public privacy policy, and you know their incentive is to serve you ads.

A company that has known ties to the authoritarian Chinese government is a huge risk.
Click to expand...
But the NSA/FBI/Law enforcement has been caught many times collecting the same data that Google does. If someone wanted to pushing you for breaking the law (and lets face it, everyone breaks the law every day, it just matters what we get caught for), who are you more scared of? the US government or the chinese government? Because I know the Chinese government doesn't give a rats ass.
 
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No different than Microsoft, Google, Apple phones. Complete bullshit that it's not OUR government spying on us now they want to protect the citizens. What a fucking joke. At least the Chinese Gov is less likely to drone my children accidentally.
 
Somebody should ask China to invade an ally of ours so we can complete the ol' distraction.

look_a_distraction_design_by_eecomics.jpg


China! China! China!
 
1. Told China is spying on us.
2. Everyone says US spies.
3. This makes it ok... i.... guess?
4. Nobody does anything about any of it.
 
Drep said:
If our government had any actual proof that they caused a national security issue, the phones would be outright banned. This is a cold war fear campaign.
Click to expand...

A cold war fear plan? ....... as opposed to a lawyer, who got a new job as the Director of the FBI, just talking out of his ass?
 
oldmanbal said:
No different than Microsoft, Google, Apple phones. Complete bullshit that it's not OUR government spying on us now they want to protect the citizens. What a fucking joke. At least the Chinese Gov is less likely to drone my children accidentally.
Click to expand...


Because you like to take your family and vacation in Yemen?
 
theplaidfad said:
5. Wait for Cali3350's brilliant plant to do something about it.
6. Die waiting.
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My Brilliant plan is to look at individual actions individually. My first response isnt "Yeah but the US does it" my first response is "Thats a good reason to not use Huawei what is the evidence of this".
 
Cali3350 said:
My Brilliant plan is to look at individual actions individually. My first response isnt "Yeah but the US does it" my first response is "Thats a good reason to not use Huawei what is the evidence of this".
Click to expand...

You almost lost me until you added "what is the evidence of this" at the end. Even that being said, the real question you should be asking yourself is "Why does this matter to me?" I believe what most others are getting at in this thread is that it doesn't matter to them and our data is being harvested no matter what brand of internet connected device we use.
 
Sounds to me like the ongoing trend of this administration tryng to smear any company with non American sounding name and won't play ball with them.
Kaspersky - no evidence, sounds russian, tank their company!
Huawei - no evidence, sounds asian, tank their company!
who's next?!
 
I've been using Huawei devices as far back as the Nexus 6P. Do they collect data? More than likely but tell me who doesn't these days? Huawei makes an excellent phone, tablet and Surface type device. Couldn't be happier with mine. You wanna look at my dic pics, go for it... :yuck:
 
Gigus Fire said:
But the NSA/FBI/Law enforcement has been caught many times collecting the same data that Google does. If someone wanted to pushing you for breaking the law (and lets face it, everyone breaks the law every day, it just matters what we get caught for), who are you more scared of? the US government or the chinese government? Because I know the Chinese government doesn't give a rats ass.
Click to expand...


They don't give a rats ass about my personal infractions (unless I travel to China)

What they do care very much about is where I work and what information they can get. It is well documented that China has a military digital industrial espionage program. Whether your employer allows you to use your phone as part of a BYOD program or not, they can Still use your phone to steal information (microphones, cameras, etc.) Just having the phone on your person is a problem.

This is what they did to the solar panel industry. They identified that it was an industry of the future and wanted to go after it. They stole research from U.S. and European firms using the Chinese military's digital espionage program, then used that information to create their own industry, which they highly subsidized with the intent of dumping Chinese panels om the international market at a price no one else can compete with and driving them out of business.

(Keep in mind here that the founder of Huawei has a long history with the Chinese military)

Once successful, the plan is to raise prices and then have the solar panel industry to themselves for the rest of all time.

Unless you have a completely unimportant job at like McDonalds or something, it is very much in your best interest to not go anywhere near these Huaiwei devices.

(If you want your company to survive and you to keep your job, that is.)
 
Everyone is spying on each others. Stop talking like only other Countries spy on the US. We spy on others as well.
if we tell people not to buy Huawei phone, then they can tell their people not to buy apple or google phones as well right.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
They don't give a rats ass about my personal infractions (unless I travel to China)

What they do care very much about is where I work and what information they can get. It is well documented that China has a military digital industrial espionage program. Whether your employer allows you to use your phone as part of a BYOD program or not, they can Still use your phone to steal information (microphones, cameras, etc.) Just having the phone on your person is a problem.

This is what they did to the solar panel industry. They identified that it was an industry of the future and wanted to go after it. They stole research from U.S. and European firms using the Chinese military's digital espionage program, then used that information to create their own industry, which they highly subsidized with the intent of dumping Chinese panels om the international market at a price no one else can compete with and driving them out of business.

(Keep in mind here that the founder of Huawei has a long history with the Chinese military)

Once successful, the plan is to raise prices and then have the solar panel industry to themselves for the rest of all time.

Unless you have a completely unimportant job at like McDonalds or something, it is very much in your best interest to not go anywhere near these Huaiwei devices.

(If you want your company to survive and you to keep your job, that is.)
Click to expand...


Nothing more to add.
 
MDboyz said:
Everyone is spying on each others. Stop talking like only other Countries spy on the US. We spy on others as well.
if we tell people not to buy Huawei phone, then they can tell their people not to buy apple or google phones as well right.
Click to expand...


As long as we keep in in perspective ........

Telling Americans not to buy Huawei phones isn't the same as China telling the Chinese people not to buy ........ um......I'm sorry but I can't actually think of a phone that isn't made in China because even the Korean ones are so .......
And if they aren't made in China then it's mostly either Taiwan or Vietnam.
 
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