Cybersecurity

In victory for Beijing, Britain welcomes ‘high risk’ Huawei

The British government announced in late January it will allow the Chinese company Huawei to supply part of the United Kingdom’s next-generation 5G data network – despite the government’s own assessment that the company is a “high risk vendor.” Unless the United Kingdom reverses this penny-wise, pound-foolish decision, one of America’s closest and most militarily capable democratic allies will deliver a victory to the Chinese Communist Party and damage transatlantic security.

Britain’s decision allows high risk Huawei to supply up to 35 percent of non-core components of the U.K.’s 5G network. By limiting Huawei to “periphery” as opposed to “core” elements of the 5G network, U.K. officials believe they can limit security risks.

But that argument is suspect. Some experts warn that peripheral components are also “vulnerable to hard-to-detect attacks that could exfiltrate, reroute, or duplicate sensitive data.” Wherever Huawei’s technology is embedded, the company may have the ability to disrupt 5G functionality at a time of the CCP’s choosing.