‘National security risk’ behind Huawei ban
AUCKLAND: GCSB Minister Andrew Little says the ‘‘national security risks’’ identified by the agency in regard to Spark’s planned 5G rollout relate to ‘‘intervention in an unauthorised way’’.
Earlier yesterday, Spark said it had been notified by GCSB directorgeneral Andrew Hampton that it could not use Huawei gear for its pending 5G mobile network upgrade.
Under the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act 2013, or Ticsa, technology used by Spark, Chorus, Vodafone, 2degrees and other network operators for upgrades needs to be vetted and approved by the security agency.
GCSB yesterday said it had informed Spark that a ‘‘significant network security risk was identified’’.
Mr Little said the agency had identified technology that Spark wished to introduce for 5G constituted ‘‘what would create a national security risk’’.
But he stayed mum on details of what those risks were, citing ‘‘classified information’’.
‘‘In any event, the process is an ongoing one.’’
He said a risk to national security through the telecom munications network ‘‘relates to intervention in an unauthorised way’’.
‘‘The process is the GCSB provides a technical assessment and evaluation to determine whether or not there is the possibility of a threat to national security.’’
Mr Little said he had not been called on to make any decisions on the matter.
‘‘The next part of the process is Spark and GCSB working together to identify any mitigation and whether or not those mitigations were enough to eliminate the national security risk.’’
He had not been given an indication of how long that would take.
‘‘This was an assessment of technology that Spark wishes to introduce to their network, not technology that is installed at this point.’’
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had been briefed.
The process now was Spark and the GCSB had the opportunity to work together to look at any mitigations and see if any ‘‘outstanding issues could be resolved’’, Mr Little said.
The GCSB’s move comes after reports on Friday that the United States was pressuring allies to drop Huawei.
Spark said it had not yet had time to review the decision in detail.
‘‘While we are disappointed with this decision, we are confident that the decision will not affect our plans to launch Spark’s 5G network by July 1, 2020, subject to the necessary spectrum being made available by the New Zealand Government,’’ Spark said.
Mobile telecommunications operator 2degrees said the decision to ban Huawei from involvement in the rollout of the country’s 5G network for national security reasons ‘‘will be a real disappointment for competition’’.
The decision means New Zea land is lining up with two of its allies in the Five Eyes global signals spy network, the United States and Australia, in effectively banning the use of Huawei equipment in the rollout of the next generation of highspeed mobile telecommunications.
While Huawei equipment was acceptable in the 4G network, there had been speculation it would not be allowed to participate in 5G because the ‘‘core’’ elements of the superfast network will be much more decentralised than in the 4G network, making them more susceptible to potential infiltration. — NZME/BusinessDesk