Huawei Proceed With Caution The Economist
14-1-20
Huawei: Proceed with caution | The Economist
Schumpeter
Business and management
Huawei
Proceed with caution
Dec 17th 2013, 18:50 by P.L.
IN JUNE the Intelligence and Security
Committee, a group of British parliamentarians, published a stern report
(http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/06/huawei) . It concerned the
Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre, at Banbury in Oxfordshire, where telecomsnetwork equipment supplied by the Chinese company is tested to alleviate any worries that its customers (or the state) may have. Its director spent 40 years working at the
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), part of the security services. Though
Huawei’s gear has been far more welcome in Britain than America (where it is not welcome at all), the committee’s report struck a frostier tone. It recommended that the centre’s staff should be on GCHQ's payroll rather than Huawei’s. At a minimum, it proposed closer oversight. On December 17th the government published a summary of a review by Sir Kim Darroch, the national security adviser, which had been prompted by the committee’s report. (The full review is classified.) Sir Kim gives the centre a pretty clean bill of health. He says that
Huawei’s co-operation with it has “appeared exemplary” and calls the centre “a model for government collaboration with the private sector”. Despite the apparent conflict of interest, he says that the centre’s staff should remain Huawei employees, to ensure unrestrained access to the company’s products, code and engineers.
Sir Kim does, however, agree that closer supervision is required. He recommends that
GCHQ should have more say in the appointment of the centre’s senior staff. It should take www.economist.com/node/21591834/print 1/2
14-1-20
Huawei: Proceed with caution | The Economist
the lead and should chair the selection panel; hitherto, it has only been able to veto Huawei’s choices. His other recommendations include: the creation of an oversight board
Huawei: Proceed with caution | The Economist
Schumpeter
Business and management
Huawei
Proceed with caution
Dec 17th 2013, 18:50 by P.L.
IN JUNE the Intelligence and Security
Committee, a group of British parliamentarians, published a stern report
(http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/06/huawei) . It concerned the
Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre, at Banbury in Oxfordshire, where telecomsnetwork equipment supplied by the Chinese company is tested to alleviate any worries that its customers (or the state) may have. Its director spent 40 years working at the
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), part of the security services. Though
Huawei’s gear has been far more welcome in Britain than America (where it is not welcome at all), the committee’s report struck a frostier tone. It recommended that the centre’s staff should be on GCHQ's payroll rather than Huawei’s. At a minimum, it proposed closer oversight. On December 17th the government published a summary of a review by Sir Kim Darroch, the national security adviser, which had been prompted by the committee’s report. (The full review is classified.) Sir Kim gives the centre a pretty clean bill of health. He says that
Huawei’s co-operation with it has “appeared exemplary” and calls the centre “a model for government collaboration with the private sector”. Despite the apparent conflict of interest, he says that the centre’s staff should remain Huawei employees, to ensure unrestrained access to the company’s products, code and engineers.
Sir Kim does, however, agree that closer supervision is required. He recommends that
GCHQ should have more say in the appointment of the centre’s senior staff. It should take www.economist.com/node/21591834/print 1/2
14-1-20
Huawei: Proceed with caution | The Economist
the lead and should chair the selection panel; hitherto, it has only been able to veto Huawei’s choices. His other recommendations include: the creation of an oversight board