The promise of 5G is also the problem with Huawei

Greater connectivity creates new security concerns, critics say

The new wireless technology known as 5G will do more than make mobile phones faster — it will link billions of devices, revolutionizing transportation, manufacturing and even medicine. It will also create a multitude of potential openings for bad actors to exploit.

The vulnerability helps explain the rising tension between the U.S. and Huawei Technologies Co., China’s largest technology company. Huawei is pushing for a global leadership role in 5G, but American officials suspect that could help Beijing spy on Western governments and companies.

“Huawei’s significant presence in 5G creates a new vector for possible cyberespionage and malware,” Michael Wessel, a commissioner on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that advises Congress, said in an interview. By connecting whole new classes of products, 5G “creates new vulnerabilities.”

The technology holds great promise. Forests of gadgets will communicate instantly via millions of antennas. Cars will talk to each other to avert lethal crashes, factory foremen will monitor parts supplies and doctors can perform remote surgery as video, sound and data flow without delay. Connections will be 10 to 100 times faster than current standards — quick enough to download an entire movie in seconds.

Yet U.S. national security officials see billions of opportunities for spies, hackers and cyber-thieves to steal trade secrets, sabotage machinery and even order cars to crash. Citing security threats, the U.S. has been pushing allies to block Huawei from telecommunications networks. The U.S. Congress has banned government agencies from buying the company’s gear.

The company denies that it is a threat. “The fear about Huawei and 5G is misplaced,” Andy Purdy, chief security officer for Huawei in the U.S., said.

“This is a strengthened network, a more secure network.”

The new technology will require an overhaul of telecommunications infrastructure. The term 5G stands for a fifth generation, to succeed the current fourth generation of mobile connectivity that has made video sharing and movie streaming commonplace.

Standards for 5G are being written, and large-scale commercial deployment isn’t expected until 2020, according to the U.S.-China review commission.

Major U.S. carriers AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are rolling out small-scale versions of the service.

In the meantime, the number of internet-connected devices is growing by nearly one-third each year, and will reach 25.1 billion by 2021, according to an estimate by consulting firm Gartner Inc.

As those changes unfold, Huawei is under intense scrutiny by the U.S. and its allies. Canada is conducting a security review of 5G technology, Germany is weighing whether to restrict Huawei’s role, and British authorities are said to have concluded Huawei gear puts U.K. national security at risk as they debate a ban.

Its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada at the behest of the U.S. in December on fraud charges linked to alleged Iran sanction violations. A sales executive was arrested last week in Poland on suspicion of espionage and fired over the weekend.