Huawei executives said in a report on Wednesday that they were unable to guarantee that their company’s employees would not help countries monitor political dissidents abroad.
“No business is perfect,” chief security officer Andy Purdy said in a CyberScoop report after being asked if Huawei could make sure its employees refrain from helping countries monitor opponents.
He said the company has improved its ethics.
“This is a major challenge within companies,” said Purdy. “I think over the past few years I’ve been there, we’ve significantly improved our ability to have strong ethics and compliance.” (RELATED: Report Reveals Huawei’s Role in Transporting US Technology to Iran)
Purdy and Tim Danks, vice president of risk management and partner relations, also addressed other issues. Purdy, for example, suggested that Huawei does not keep an eye on how companies are using the Chinese tech giant’s products.
“Generally in the world, we sell our products … we don’t know where these products will be used … I just don’t know,” he said. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that Huawei employees had helped Uganda and Zambia in their attempts to monitor dissidents. The company said at the time that “its employees had not engaged in any of the alleged activities”.
Purdy appeared to be taking a slightly different note, telling CyberScoop that “no company can guarantee that individual employees will not do bad things.” Danks, for his part, criticized the US government, suggesting that US officials are concerned about spreading shame.
“There are a lot of seedlings of FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt – by putting something like this,” said Danks when asked if Huawei had created a backdoor in mobile networks for the Chinese government. Purdy is a former official in the Department of Homeland Security and Danks is a longtime executive from Huawei.
The CyberScoop report comes a day after Reuters announced Tuesday that Huawei had produced records 10 years ago that appeared to show that the telecommunications giant was directly involved in sending U.S. technology parts to Iranian telephone companies.
Huawei used Hewlett-Packard Co as an intermediary to deliver parts to Iran’s largest mobile operator, Reuters reported, citing documents dated 2010. Another memo two months later reportedly said, “Currently, the equipment is delivered to Tehran and awaits custom. release. “
All of this comes as President Donald Trump and U.S. officials are pressuring foreign countries to avoid using Huawei’s technology to develop a fifth generation mobile service. Trump says Huawei poses a threat to national security, warning Beijing could order the company to spy on the Americans.
Trump’s attempts have met with varying degrees of success. British officials, for example, announced in January that they plan to allow Huawei limited access to the country’s 5G networks, thereby rejecting US pressure to avoid the telecommunications giant.
China has reportedly spent $ 24 billion more on wireless communications infrastructure since 2015 than the U.S. The country also built more 5G towers in three months in 2017 than the U.S. in three years. There are also concerns that Huawei and ZTE’s close ties to China will leave the United States open to cyberattacks.
Huawei did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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