Huawei

Researcher Felix "FX" Lindner has just revealed to attendees of his talk at security conference Hack In The Box how easy it is to gain access to Huawei routers and telco equipment, spelling out how backdoor access is not necessary if an attacker wants to get in and access traffic that runs through them.

He told the packed room in Kuala Lumpur, "I don't know if there are backdoors - but it doesn't matter since there are so many vulnerabilities."

Huawei’s representatives are very disappointed because they were banned from participating in the development of Australia’s national broadband network (NBN). Even more so, as officials failed to reveal the reasons behind the decision.

The company’s chairman for Australia, John Lord, revealed his disappointment before a parliamentary committee at the end of last week, The Australian reports.

Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies has published a paper which says that the US charges against the company were "allegations based on allegations", implying that the issue could hurt the relationship between the two countries.

A paper comissioned by the company to Dan Steinbock who is described as "an authority on trade and investment and US-Chinese relations", and published on its website points out that most of the evidence said to be against Huawei remained classified.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei will invest the equivalent of $2 billion in the UK. During the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Chinese city of Tianjin, the world's second largest networking supplier announced long-term plans to expand its activities as well as its research and development.

Huawei has released a security whitepaper claiming it has “never damaged any nation”, never intended to steal state or corporate secrets, and would not tolerate illegal activity.

The document (pdf) was released following a decision by the Federal Government to ban Huawei from bidding on National Broadband Network work, and criticism from the US Government about the organisation’s alleged close ties to Bejing.

China’s dominant telco vendors ZTE Corp and Huawei will take part in US congressional hearings next month regarding investigations of alleged Chinese spy threats to US telecommunications infrastructure.

The House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has invited both ZTE chairman Hou Weigui and Huawei deputy chairman Ken Hu to testify. ZTE’s US arm confirmed its participation in the upcoming congressional hearing but Huawei has yet to publicly comment on whether any of its executives would take part.

Chen Lifang is a bit flummoxed.

Chen is a board member and senior vice president at Huawei, the giant telecommunications gear maker based here. She's digesting news that broke a day earlier that the U.S. House Intelligence Committee has ratcheted up the pressure it's putting on the company to disclose details about its ties to the Chinese government. The bombshell came in the form of a letter, released to the media, from the committee chairman and the ranking Democrat to Huawei founder and chairman Ren Zhengfei

Huawei Technologies said on Thursday it was verifying claims that its routers contained critical vulnerabilities, after security researchers disclosed alleged problems last weekend.

"We are aware of the media reports on security vulnerabilities in some small Huawei routers and are verifying these claims," Huawei said in an email. The company added it uses "rigorous security strategies and policies" to protect the networks of its customers, while following industry standards and best practices concerning security.

"For the 20th anniversary of Def Con the gift is China," Recurity Labs chief Felix "FX" Lindner said as he opened his presentation.

"Nobody needs a back door; this is plausible deniability," he quipped as he detailed weaknesses in three small Huawei routers that could be exploited using basic hacking techniques. "You get what you pay for. Sorry."

Chinese handset maker Huawei Technologies expects its smartphone chip business will help further drive revenue, signaling that the company could try to compete in the world's mobile chip market.

"In the future, whether it be mobile broadband devices, tablets, or smartphones, Huawei will be able to provide its own core chip solution," said Huawei executive vice president Eric Xu.