At the beginning of October the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee released a report that accused Chinese telecom manufacturers Huawei Technologies and ZTE of being a potential security threat to computer networks and the Internet in the United States and worldwide. There are concerns about the companies’ close ties to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party. The concern is that using the switches, routers, and other telecom gear manufactured by these companies could compromise network security, through software and or hardware elements that would allow the Chinese a “backdoor” into the network, where they could then scan the network for important information, or even disable or reroute traffic to cripple our defensive capabilities in the event of political or military conflicts. It has been recommended that US communications companies avoid buying and deploying networking gear manufactured by these firms.
But what about a different problem? Major U.S. based telecom and networking companies such as Cisco Systems and Tyco, which recently acquired ADC Telecom, have outsourced some or all of their manufacturing processes to China, or are assembling their products with parts that originate from China. European telecom manufacturers are doing likewise. Are the western democracies all at risk of this potential exploit? Are we turning over the keys to the Internet and other major governmental, military and corporate networks to the Big Tiger? You may be interested in a longer story on SiliconValley.com
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About the Author:
I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com