China ‘hack threat to 5G broadband’

BRITAIN’S next generation super-fast mobile broadband could be vulnerable to Chinese espionage when launched next year, a spy suggested yesterday.

Jeremy Fleming, head of eavesdropping agency GCHQ, said ‘fifth generation’ mobile services, 5G, risk being hacked into by hostile states or terrorists.

He said new technologies will transform healthcare and create smart, energy-efficient cities. ‘But they also bring risks that, if unchecked, could make us more vulnerable to terrorists, hostile states and serious criminals’, he wrote in the Sunday Times.

He added: ‘The globalisation of technology is here and we need to learn to deal with it. Critical technologies – for example, in 5G – are increasingly likely to come from China.’

Mr Fleming said the UK must take measures to limit the threat to national infrastructure.

His comments come after a report into Chinese firm Huawei – the world’s largest provider of telecoms – found the UK has ‘only limited assurance’ that it poses no threat to national security.