Huawei was used for outsourcing, Huawei obviously has root access. If you outsource your IT to a company with known ties to a foreign government you can't complain about them having sensitive access.
I do agree it's again here and shouldn't be anymore. But don't claim it's normal, the audit reported it as not.
KPN even hid the report for 10 years, because it was afraid of it's contents to go public.
Ps. Yes, i speak dutch, so I read the original article on Volkskrant.nl . More information is probably getting out soon as it's being inquired currently by their government.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/30/huawei-china-business-r...
The original article (well, the translation bondarchuk posted here) says they had the access. Not that they did anything with it.
They had unauthorized access, which means they used it. It's not clear for what currently, that's why it describes the scope of access.
They also found that the application can tap entire phone calls, which was forbidden.
Edit:
What do you think the following means ( Dutch is my native tongue, lol):
> ‘Ongecontroleerde en ongeautoriseerde toegang vanuit China heeft na 28 oktober 2009 daadwerkelijk plaatsgevonden’, vermeldt het rapport in april 2010.
Translation: Unchecked and unauthorized access has taken place from china after 28 October 2009.
Original article: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...
> They had unauthorized access
No it doesn't
>which means they used it
Does it?
As per HN regs, "The article mentions that."
But the stories are all about a Chinese company once having done a thing they were asked to do...
We do not have evidence the NSA is doing industrial espionage.
Moreover, this is Huawei, not technically 'the state' and it's about the fact they are related to the state - and - they've had incredible access as part of their normal operations which is questionable.
China is the most aggressive and active state sponsor of hacking and they 100% do it for purposes of industrial espionage.
Literally 'leaving the door open' to every phone in a nation to a state-backed entity seems unthinkable in 2021.
It's probably going to be best if everyone uses local carrier gear and consulting entities for this kind of work the advantage of 'totally free trade' doesn't seem to be more than what would be lost otherwise.
I agree about the ideal world solution being to only use home designed/produced tech. Sadly there are only a few companies on earth actually making this tech. For a long time the only company with a real 5G solution was Huawei. I'm as suspicious of the Chinese as the next rational human. I just think almost all telecoms infrastructure is compromised by the US, so its about picking the problem rather than avoiding it...
[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/25907502
[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/xw3qjj/germany-accused-of-sp...
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/30/nsa-leaks-us-b...
https://0bin.net/paste/poCzYk4t#IRjhnXLT31zdiDMCVJIIqvZgLDqh...
- could have eavesdropped - likely wouldn't have been found out - but there is no indication that they did so
In the end Huawei (the company) has no benefits and IMHO no intention to spy on the Dutch mobile network. The problem is that the employees of Huawei, independent of nationality, might be a different story. (Or more precise China or the USA pressuring employees or installing "their people" in the right technical positions).
But as a side note that is also true for the USA, not just China.
It's just that for all western/(somewhat proper) democratic countries the US is much closer ideological and political then China, even with all the faults the USA has.
Like e.g China is a "de-facto" one party system (theoretical they have more) and the US is a "de-facto" two party system. Which is better but still not proper democratic.
