Former foreign minister says Huawei links to cyber attacks 'absurd'
Former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, has criticised suggestions that Huawei is somehow involved in cyber warfare after the Chinese vendor was blocked from bidding for NBN work over security fears.
A report in the Australian financial review on Saturday said that the government had banned Huawei from tendering for work saying that the government had responsibility to protect the “integrity [of the NBN] and that of the information carried on it” Downer who joined the Huawei Australian board last year said “this is just completely absurd”. “This whole concept of Huawei being involved in cyber warfare presumably will be based on the fact that Huawei comes from China” he continued.
