EU risk report welcomed by Huawei
A risk assessment report on cybersecurity in 5G networks, released by the European Union on Wednesday, highlighted the potential for increased exposure to attacks.
Major challenges include the role of suppliers in building and operating 5G networks, and the degree of dependency on individual suppliers.
Among potential threat actors, the report said non-EU states or state-backed entities would be the most likely to target the member nations’ 5G networks.
By the end of the year, the EU hopes to have found measures to address the risks at both national and EU-wide levels. By the start of October 2020, member states should have considered the recommendations and decided whether to take further action. Ultimately, decisions on 5G networks will be made by individual countries.
European countries have come under great pressure from the United States to ban Chinese telecom equipment company Huawei from their 5G networks. Top US officials have repeatedly threatened not to share intelligence with European allies if they fail to comply but so far, most European countries have rejected a blanket ban on Huawei products.
On Tuesday, The Financial Times reported that the US is considering providing subsidies for Huawei’s chief European rivals, Nokia and Ericsson, to make them more competitive against the Chinese telecom giant.
The Financial Times said that US officials have talked internally about measures such as lines of credit so that the European companies could match Huawei’s offers to national clients. Another option is creating a pool of subsidies to incentivize companies such as Cisco to create 5G radio towers and other products that would compete against Huawei’s portfolio.
With a deep footprint in Europe, Huawei is the world leader in 5G technology. A company spokesman said it welcomed the EU report’s findings.
“Our strong and continuing collaboration with our European partners is a unique opportunity for Europe to maintain its technology leadership,” said a statement from the company, which claims to be a 100-percent private company wholly owned by its employees.
“As the EU moves from identifying risks toward elaborating the common security framework required to manage and mitigate these risks, we hope this work will continue to be guided by the same facts-based approach,” the statement said.
The company said it stands ready to work with European partners to help develop this framework and deliver safe and fast connectivity in the future.
US President Donald Trump issued an executive order in May barring US companies from using information and communications technology from companies considered a national security threat. On the same day, the US Commerce Department placed Huawei and 70 of its affiliates on the Entity List, a trade blacklist, without providing any evidence.
Earlier, former director-general of the World Trade Organization and European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy told China Daily that the real concern is whether Huawei devices would allow the Chinese to spy, but he has exactly the same concern with Cisco.
“As Europeans, I don’t like to be spied on by the Chinese, nor do I like to be spied by the Americans. I know full well because I have been spied by the Americans in the various positions I had,” he said.