Best Buy will cut ties with Huawei and stop selling Huawei products over the next few weeks. Huawei's smartphones, such as its new flagship Mate 10 Pro, are sold in the U.S. by retailers, but no U.S. wireless service provider will sell them. Now the largest electronics retailer in the U.S. is calling it quits:
The move, after similar actions from U.S. carriers including AT&T Inc, comes as U.S. scrutiny of Chinese tech firms grows amid simmering tensions over U.S.-China trade and concerns of security.
[...] Earlier this year, AT&T was forced to scrap a plan to offer Huawei handsets after some members of Congress lobbied against the idea with federal regulators, sources told Reuters. Verizon Communications Inc also ended its plans to sell Huawei phones last year, according to media reports.
Last month two Republican Senators introduced legislation that would block the U.S. government from buying or leasing telecommunications equipment from Huawei or Chinese peer ZTE Corp, citing concern the firms would use their access to spy on U.S. officials.
Previously: U.S. Lawmakers Urge AT&T to Cut Ties With Huawei
Verizon Cancels Plans to Sell Huawei Phone Due to U.S. Government Pressure
U.S. Intelligence Agency Heads Warn Against Using Huawei and ZTE Products
The U.S. Intelligence Community's Demonization of Huawei Remains Highly Hypocritical
Related Stories
Exclusive: U.S. lawmakers urge AT&T to cut commercial ties with Huawei - sources
U.S. lawmakers are urging AT&T Inc, the No. 2 wireless carrier, to cut commercial ties to Chinese phone maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and oppose plans by telecom operator China Mobile Ltd to enter the U.S. market because of national security concerns, two congressional aides said.
[...] Earlier this month, AT&T was forced to scrap a plan to offer its customers Huawei handsets after some members of Congress lobbied against the idea with federal regulators, sources told Reuters.
The U.S. government has also blocked a string of Chinese acquisitions over national security concerns, including Ant Financial's proposed purchase of U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc.
The lawmakers are also advising U.S. firms that if they have ties to Huawei or China Mobile, it could hamper their ability to do business with the U.S. government, one aide said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Related: NSA Spied on Chinese Government and Huawei
Kaspersky Willing to Hand Source Code Over to U.S. Government
Kaspersky Lab has been Working With Russian Intelligence
FBI Reportedly Advising Companies to Ditch Kaspersky Apps
Federal Government, Concerned About Cyberespionage, Bans Use of Kaspersky Labs Products
Verizon is following AT&T's lead and cancelling plans to sell Huawei's Mate 10 Pro smartphone that boasts support for the upcoming super-fast 5G network, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday.
Verizon's decision is reportedly based on political pressure from the US government, which is seeing a reinvigorated fear of spying from China as US regulators urged an investigation of Chinese-made telecom equipment in December 2017. It's the same reason AT&T dropped its deal with Huawei to offer the Mate 10 Pro on January 8.
Huawei's Mate 10 Pro with 5G networking capabilities seemingly falls under the category of Chinese-made telecom equipment under investigation, as the company has been accused of having ties with the Chinese government.
Previously: U.S. Lawmakers Urge AT&T to Cut Ties With Huawei
Related: U.S. Government Reportedly Wants to Build a 5G Network to Thwart Chinese Spying
Intelligence agency heads have warned against using Huawei and ZTE products and services:
The heads of six major US intelligence agencies have warned that American citizens shouldn't use products and services made by Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE. According to a report from CNBC, the intelligence chiefs made the recommendation during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday. The group included the heads of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the director of national intelligence.
During his testimony, FBI Director Chris Wray said the the government was "deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks." He added that this would provide "the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage."
These warnings are nothing new. The US intelligence community has long been wary of Huawei, which was founded by a former engineer in China's People's Liberation Army and has been described by US politicians as "effectively an arm of the Chinese government." This caution led to a ban on Huawei bidding for US government contracts in 2014, and it's now causing problems for the company's push into consumer electronics.
Verizon and AT&T recently cancelled plans to sell Huawei's Mate 10 Pro smartphone.
Don't use a Huawei phone because it's too Chinese. Don't use an Apple phone because strong encryption is not "responsible encryption". Which phone is just right for the FBI?
Previously: U.S. Lawmakers Urge AT&T to Cut Ties With Huawei
Related: FBI Director Christopher Wray Keeps War on Encryption Alive
U.S. Government Reportedly Wants to Build a 5G Network to Thwart Chinese Spying
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
The U.S. Intel Community's Demonization of Huawei Remains Highly Hypocritical
We've noted for some time how Chinese hardware vendor Huawei has been consistently accused of spying on American citizens without any substantive, public evidence. You might recall that these accusations flared up several years ago, resulting in numerous investigations that culminated in no hard evidence whatsoever to support the allegations. We're not talking about superficial inquiries, we're talking about eighteen months, in-depth reviews by people with every interest in exposing them. One anonymous insider put it this way in the wake of the last bout of hysteria surrounding the company:
We knew certain parts of government really wanted" evidence of active spying, said one of the people, who requested anonymity. "We would have found it if it were there.
[...] This week, hysteria concerning Huawei again reached a fevered pitch, as U.S. intelligence chiefs, testifying before Congress over Russian hacking and disinformation concerns, again proclaimed that Huawei was spying on American citizens and their products most assuredly should not be used:
At the hearing, FBI Director Chris Wray testified, "We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks." Purchasing Huawei or ZTE products, Wray added, "provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.
Which values would those be, exactly? Would it be the values, as leaked Edward Snowden docs revealed, that resulted in the NSA hacking into Huawei, stealing source code, then attempting to plant its own backdoors into Huawei products? Or perhaps it's the values inherent in working closely with companies like AT&T to hoover up every shred of data that touches the AT&T network and share it with the intelligence community? Perhaps it's the values inherent in trying to demonize encryption, by proxy weakening security for everyone?
Huawei's consumer business group CEO Richard Yu is not giving up on selling smartphones and other devices in the U.S., despite warnings against the company made by U.S. government officials and a lack of support from retailers. The company recently released a new flagship smartphone, the Huawei P20 Pro:
"We are committed to the US market and to earning the trust of US consumers by staying focused on delivering world-class products and innovation," Yu told CNET in an email. "We would never compromise that trust."
The comments mark a defiant response to the vague warnings made by US officials that have effectively crippled Huawei's ability to get its phones in front of consumers. In January, AT&T pulled out of a landmark plan to sell the Mate 10 Pro, an important high-end Huawei phone. Verizon reportedly also scuttled a deal to carry the device based on political pressure. CNET was also first to report that Best Buy, the US' largest electronics retailer, dropped Huawei phones from its roster.
[...] "The security risk concerns are based on groundless suspicions and are quite frankly unfair," Yu said. "We welcome an open and transparent discussion if it is based on facts." [...] "We work with 46 of the 50 global operators," Yu told CNET, "And have maintained a very strong security record because security is one of our top priorities." [...] "Even without the United States market, we'll be No. 1 in the world," Yu said earlier this week.
Huawei reported a 27% jump in profits in 2017, despite its struggle to establish itself in the U.S. market.
See also: Huawei P20 launch highlights the risks of U.S. paranoia over Chinese security
Huawei's P20 Pro is a hugely promising phone that will upset Americans
Previously: U.S. Lawmakers Urge AT&T to Cut Ties With Huawei
Verizon Cancels Plans to Sell Huawei Phone Due to U.S. Government Pressure
The U.S. Intelligence Community's Demonization of Huawei Remains Highly Hypocritical
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday March 22 2018, @11:26PM (1 child)
Who needs tariffs, when you've got fearmongering ?
(Score: -1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 22 2018, @11:46PM
...he said, while eagerly waiting for his rancid rectum to be filled with sticky goodies from afar. Fear not, for you need not wait any longer! Cum forth, my fetid friend! Fire your cockpoles like a howitzer! Fire them into his rectal womb!
Fire! Fire! Fire!!!
What...no, it cannot be! Is this truly the mythical, legendary feces soup!?!?!? Such a thing...!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Friday March 23 2018, @12:30AM (2 children)
Windows is the security nightmare of the century, but that's okay to sell.
I say tax the hell out of MS so they move to China, then ban the feck out of Windows and solve your security problems.
Ta-dah! It's like magic.
Hoo-wah is probably a smaller security problem if only the Chinese government is hacking it. EVERYONE is hacking Windows, the Chinese government included.
THINK, man. THINK!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 23 2018, @12:36AM (1 child)
It's *our* security nightmare.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday March 23 2018, @12:44AM
Well, could you lock it up, please. It keeps playing in my toilet and getting water EVERYWHERE!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday March 23 2018, @12:42AM (1 child)
Not a hot war
Not a cold war
A trade war!
Kind-of a luke-warm war?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/mar/18/trump-on-path-full-scale-trade-war-first-china-then-europe [theguardian.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Friday March 23 2018, @01:03AM
I heard that trade wars are good, and easy to win, so don't you worry about that.
I am writing this from a 5 eyes nation whose major internet infrastructure is almost entirely made by Huawei. With that being the case, I'm pretty sure the US would have kicked up a real fuss if there was any danger involved, and we would have bought Cisco (or whatever the alternative is.)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by arcz on Friday March 23 2018, @12:43AM (5 children)
Fear: Evil chinese phones!!
Reality: You should be more worried about the government trying to surpress speech enabling devices. There is no proof these spy on you. The government wants to control your speech and force you to use devices that can be subject to illegal fisa secret court gag orders. (devices made in the US)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2018, @07:59AM (1 child)
Well, to be precise, there is no evidence that they spy on you any more than the average spyphone.
(Score: 2) by arcz on Sunday March 25 2018, @04:43PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2018, @06:23PM (2 children)
Are ANY phones made in the US?
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Friday March 23 2018, @10:47PM (1 child)
In two minutes of Google-fu, I found the following American cell phone manufacturers: Apple, Motorola and Nokia--er, Microsoft Mobile. None of these companies make phones in North America.
Another minute of Googling led me to this list [wikipedia.org], but none of the United States companies listed seem to be notable in that category.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by arcz on Sunday March 25 2018, @04:46PM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2018, @12:51AM
Yes, this is the solution, not having phones that run on 100% free software and are fully controlled by the user so that anyone can see what they're doing. No. The real solution is to stop selling proprietary phones made by a specific company from a certain country. Surely you'll be safe and sound now, especially from your own government which also utilizes backdoors. Pay no attention to the fact that countless components commonly used in cellphones made by other companies are also made in China.
These people focus on the dumbest things imaginable while completely ignoring the fundamental issues.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2018, @01:15AM (2 children)
Smells like the noise the US fedgov made about some Russian-produced anti-malware software and how it was probably evil and full of nastiness and no one should use it - when a more reasonable explanation is that the Russian-based company couldn't be arsed to whitelist fedgov malware.
Still, I doubt Huawei makes many products where the purchaser is the actual owner of the hardware, so forgive me if my eyes are still dry.
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Friday March 23 2018, @04:44AM (1 child)
I once had a phone interview with huawei (sf bay area). one question that they asked me stood out in my mind, 'why do you want to work for a chinese company?'. hey, I just wanted to WORK, I cared less about who it was, at the time. (sometimes its like that, especially as you get older and the choices are less, for you). but I was asked why I'd work for a chinese company; not THEIR company but a chinese one. that seemed odd to me.
they never did call me back and I guess I wasn't enough to their liking. go figure.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 23 2018, @05:48AM
The answer: "I want to cut out the middleman!"
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]