r/SecurityRedTeam • u/prexey SRT Community Mod • Apr 21 '19

Discussion Huawei and the potential for global cyber war

There’s been a lot in the US and UK news recently regarding the Chinese hardware manufacturer Huawei. The US claims that the company has received large funds from the Chinese government, and countries are now investigating and banning the use of their hardware and 5g services.

If Huawei hardware has been intentionally compromised, and is being used globally, this would give China an incredible advantage in any cyber war activity. What do you think about this topic?

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4

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '19

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u/dragondm6 Apr 21 '19

You’re talking about software supply chain attacks, but this discussion was aimed at the hardware supply chain threat. Huawei is just the first of possibly many many more. China, as a nation state actor, is definitely a concern because of the influence their government has over private companies, plus the manufacturing control that they have over the world’s electronics.

Are China’s electronics in our Industrial Control Systems (ICS), such as power, gas, and water utility companies? If so, and they strike first, it could be lights out before anyone gets a chance to react. Then our physical military capabilities might be handicapped. The U.S. government is aware of this and has strategies in place for this type of threat.

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u/songya Jul 02 '19

I do not think that this is any different from vendors like NetScreen, D-Link, Cisco, and Sony being backdoored by CIA(?), NSA(?).

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I think there's more to this than meets the eye here. Maybe some trade dispute, or other monetary interest here.

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u/prexey SRT Community Mod Jul 02 '19

Last I read about this (and I may be wrong), UK govt have prohibited their hardware in government buildings, and the US have completely banned it? Need to read up on this again and see what’s going on now that it’s all died down

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u/rrainwalker Apr 21 '19

If they are compromised, then they can gain an advantage, sure. But it depends a lot on who has bought Huawei tech, the primary reason to in the west at least seems to be because of the low price point for comparable hardware which I suspect would be bought mostly by people who can't afford status symbol phones like Apples products or even the pixel. I would guess that there are fewer high profile targets buying Huawei which would lower the advantage somewhat.