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from the which-phone-has-the-official-okey-dokey? dept.
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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @03:47AM
China is worse? China's record in foreign relations is far from spotless, but I see that the United States's record for meddling in world affairs for its own benefit is still darker, even counting only what they have done since the end of World War II. They have manipulated and encouraged repressive dictatorships throughout Latin America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, etc.), aided and abetted genocide (East Timor, Guatemala), and engaged in multiple unprovoked wars of aggression (Vietnam, Iraq, Grenada, Panama, etc.). China has done some terrible things to other countries too in the same period but nothing on the scale of what the United States has done. Sure, the Chinese annexed Tibet and have propped up North Korea and the Khmer Rouge (bearing a portion of the responsibility for the Cambodian genocide) among other things, but is the scale and scope of their foreign manipulation really greater than that of the US? I think not. But I will agree it is not for lack of trying.