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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australia's government on Thursday banned major Chinese telecoms firm Huawei Technologies from supplying equipment for its planned 5G mobile network, citing risks of foreign interference.
The 1000-word statement did not mention China, or the Chinese telecommunications equipment giants Huawei or ZTE. Nor did it plainly state the bombshell decision that they are to be banned from building Australia's new telecommunications network.
The fifth generation mobile telecoms system, or 5G, is a big deal. It's to be the key architecture of an increasingly wired nation, connecting power and water systems, medical and driverless technologies, systems in homes and hospitals, factories and farms, enabling the so-called "internet of things".
If you're getting the impression that the government didn't want to draw attention to the announcement, you're right. After months of careful scrutiny, the cabinet's national security committee had made the decision a week earlier. Then sat on it.
Why? Because it was nervous about Beijing's reaction. Canberra was still negotiating its way out of a Chinese freeze on ministerial contacts and didn't want to bring on another any earlier than necessary.
But everyone involved knew that it inevitably would bring on Beijing's wrath. And so, when the ministers decided they couldn't delay any longer, it did.
[...] All of Australia's intelligence and security agencies were in accord that the big Chinese firms must be shut out of the fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile telecommunications network, according to participants in the process.
The Communications Department had produced an analysis of how this might increase the cost to Australian consumers. Huawei had claimed that it had the highest quality, lowest price 5G technology. To exclude Huawei would be to punish Australian firms and families, it argued.
But despite the claims, the Communications Department concluded that any such assessment was merely speculative – the global technology and engineering specifications for 5G are still being drafted.
Related: U.S. Intelligence Agency Heads Warn Against Using Huawei and ZTE Products
The U.S. Intelligence Community's Demonization of Huawei Remains Highly Hypocritical
Huawei CEO Still Committed to the U.S. Market
Rural Wireless Association Opposes U.S. Government Ban on Huawei and ZTE Equipment
ZTE Suspends Operations Due to U.S. Ban (UPDATED)
New Law Bans U.S. Government from Buying Equipment from Chinese Telecom Giants ZTE and Huawei
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @08:50AM (6 children)
Some wiser heads than my own felt it would be best to buy all the construction materials from the Soviets.
Hilarity Ensued.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday August 28 2018, @01:22PM (5 children)
On topic: Can Australia's "ban" of Chinese companies for foreign intelligence reasons also be interpreted to apply to NSA supplied equipment to build the nation's new 5G network?
Off topic: It would be expensive and difficult to ship building materials for a new embassy into Russia, and keep them completely secure all the way to the construction site, and throughout construction. We could save a lot of money by buying construction materials and labor from Russia to build our insecure bug-riddled embassy. I'm sure Vladimir assured Trump that he could totally trust Russia, even though he should not trust his own US Intelligence organization.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @04:11PM (2 children)
Or maybe earlier than that. I shall pray to the I'm Feeling Lucky God.
Ayup. 1987:
PRESIDENT ORDERS INQUIRY IN MOSCOW INTO EMBASSY SITE
In reality they budgeted $150M, of which $100M had already been spent building the damn thing before the "serious security flaws" were discovered.
Isn't "discovering serious security flaws" what we have the NSA around for. To quote my Naval Civil Service father (he got out after Vietnam, went back to school then back to the Navy as a civilian engineer):
"Whenever we buy a new computer we have to wait six months for an expert to fly out from Washington then another month for him to Bless the damn thing."
Perhaps our computers need to be blessed. Perhaps the blessing of new computers went out of fashion a while back, seeing as how it would have been a Yuge PITA what with Windows 3.5, Internet Explorer, Mac OS 7.5 and Cyberdog.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 28 2018, @04:49PM (1 child)
Do you realize how boring that is compared to spying on global communications?
The NSA isn't interested in discovering security flaws except to the degree it allows them to spy on communications. It is not interested in defense against security flaws because that's not as fun as spying.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday August 29 2018, @06:27AM
While I expect you're right, James Bamford wrote in "The Puzzle Palace" that the NSA's mandate includes defense against foreign attacks. Consider SELinux.
The NSA operates a purely unclassified division that works to secure the computers of These United States. Perhaps its funding has been cut back so as to more-generously fund The War On Brown People.
I read the Seventh Edition in I think 1993. Bamford is a _meticulous_ historian who issues a new edition whenever the history of the NSA changes in a significant way. That he is a historian leads much of The Puzzle Palace to be as dead as doornails because he's endlessly discussion the NSA's many re-orgs.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday August 28 2018, @11:08PM
Sure, if we consider NSA foreign intelligence but we don't. Our gubbermint consider any US 3 letter agencies their seniors. Proof? We'd condemn our own citizen, accused but not convicted, if they ask - see Assange, yet we'd try so very hard to save convicted aussie drug mules in Indonesia.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday August 29 2018, @12:16AM
I sincerely wish it would be, but since Australian governments seem wedded to the idea of turning boot licking into a high art form, I doubt it.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @01:46PM (1 child)
So I understand that means Australian telco hardware giants will be providing the infrastructure...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @02:34PM
They were banned from the NBN too after a backdoor was found in a router
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Tuesday August 28 2018, @01:50PM
Failed to impress the Europeans: https://5g-ppp.eu/5g-trials-2/ [5g-ppp.eu]
compiling...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @02:51PM
The first thing China did was to use their great firewall to block access to Australian news sites. Stop all those inquisitive Chinese from finding out the other side of the story.
(Score: 4, Informative) by tangomargarine on Tuesday August 28 2018, @03:14PM (1 child)
So maybe you could tell us what the article *did* say, instead of just implying you pulled this out of your ass?
Buried way at the bottom of the blather in the fluffy article. And from my reading it doesn't actually say foreign companies are banned. A lot of maybes and "expected to"s.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @08:51PM
maybe Australia is just doing its but in the trade war.. https://www.dw.com/en/zte-huawei-bans-genuine-security-concerns-or-part-of-china-trade-spat/a-43456452 [dw.com]