Huawei must improve 'shoddy' security standards, UK cyber official says

A senior British cyber security official from the GCHQ said on Thursday that Huawei needs to raise its “shoddy” security standards as the company faces pressure from the US and its allies.

Washington recently called for governments to ban Huawei from participating in the development of the 5G mobile network, claiming that the equipment will be used by Beijing for espionage operations

British officials raised concerns about security issues but said they can manage the risks. Nevertheless, Britain’s National Security Council decided in April to block Huawei from all core parts of the network.

“Huawei as a company builds stuff very differently to their Western counterparts. Part of that is because of how quickly they’ve grown up, part of it could be cultural – who knows,” said Ian Levy, technical director of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, part of the GCHQ signals intelligence agency.

“What we have learnt as a result of that, the security is objectively worse, and we need to cope with that,” he told a conference in London.

“Certainly nothing is perfect, certainly Huawei is shoddy, competitors are less shoddy,” he added.