Why does the U.S. government mistrust Huawei and not ZTE or Lenovo?

Huawei's big plans to make a breakthrough into the U.S. smartphone market have been crushed. There's no gentle way to say that, so I'll just say it.

As CES 2018 was drawing to a close, AT&T and Verizon, which were both all but confirmed to be "official" carriers of the Mate 10 Pro, both announced that they wouldn't be selling any Huawei phones after pressure from the U.S. government because Huawei phones being used in the states would pose a security risk.

The government really doesn't want us using Huawei products.

This pressure became official soon after as a bill was sent to Congress that would ban any government business from being done on a network that used Huawei (or ZTE) networking equipment. In the same week, we learned that government officials were urging AT&T to stop doing business with Huawei altogether and to stop working on a 5G network with the Chinese company. Once again, national security concerns were stated as the reason behind the request.

We're not done. In February 2018, right as the Mate 10 Pro was set to go up for sale in North America, heads of U.S. intelligence agencies came forward and urged Americans to not buy Huawei phones. FBI Director Christopher Wray explains the reasoning:

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.

Most recently we found out the Best Buy, One of Huawei's biggest U.S. retail outlets for unlocked phones, was going to stop selling all Huawei products. This includes phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, and routers.

But why just Huawei? If there are concerns with electronics made in China when it comes to security and privacy, why not OnePlus or Lenovo or simply all Chinese companies?

I took the time to individualize and link each time Huawei faced a roadblock when it comes to U.S. sales so it could be more obvious that the government really doesn't want us to buy Huawei products. Another thing about the paragraphs above is that they also cover the times intelligence or other government officials warned against other Chinese electronic products, with a lone mention of ZTE commerical networking equipment. It appears that Huawei is being singled out, so there has to be a reason.

Checking that processors and chipsets aren't ready to spy on us is difficult.

There happens to be several reasons, and they aren't about the end produts themselves as much as the technology inside them, much of which is done in-house at Huawei. Simply put, there are fears that Huawei is controlled by the government of China and U.S. officials don't trust the chipsets and low-level firmware that Huawei makes themselves. This is why they don't want Americans buying or using them.

Making your own processors then arranging them in a mobile chipset is a rarity. Apple does this, as does Samsung (which also makes components to sell to other manufacturers). But any other instances are few and far between back to the time when Motorola flip phones ruled the market. It also takes more than just silicon and copper as there is a lot of machine-level software and firmware involved so processors can talk to things like modems or graphics adapters. You'll find a Huawei-made chip inside all the company's high-end phones as well as the network routers and switches and transfer equipment Huawei builds for companies like AT&T to run their cellular network. In plain language, Huawei makes the parts inside the phones and other gear an it's almost impossible to independently review that they are doing what Huawei claims. The U.S. government is afraid that these components can be instructed to eavesdrop on our digital communications and send it all back to the Chinese government.

I'm not going to attempt to assess these claims; that's for three-letter government agencies to do and they say we shouldn't be using Huawei gear. It is their job to look for, then look at, potential ways the country could be put at risk. My personal opinion is that this is a wise choice for networking equipment (especially when used for government communications) but looks a bit hollow when it comes to the company's phones because of how updates are routed through the internet to our Android products. You should evaluate these claims yourself and not allow me or anyone else to make the decision for you, though.

Huawei is working the 3GPP to build the next generation 5G network standards and the equipment that's going to use them.

Another reason is a bit less technology related and leans towards the economic side. Huawei is the largest provider of commercial networking equipment (products that carriers and internet providers use) in the world and they are actively involved with the creation of 5G standards and network design. Other Chinese companies that make networking products don't make their own components and rely largely on companies like Marvell or Broadcom (yes, that Broadcom) when it comes to the individual parts inside. Huawei is also making big strides in Artificial Intelligence, both at the consumer facing and backend tech that makes it work. This means technology issues aren't the only concern and the U.S. does not want a company they assume is conencted to the Chinese governemnt to be the front runner in the next generation of communications.

These claims may be valid, they may not be. What's important is that you know why they are being made.

Again, I can't remark on the validity of these claims other than saying the people who are in the position to make them think we shouldn't use Huawei products. With a phone or watch or router from another company, the "brains" aren't made by potential Chinese government agents, which is what the U.S. intelligence service is implying. If this is true and we could be plauged with sophisticated spyware they are only doing their job; every risk, no matter how small, needs to be assessed. The fact that other countries don't have these concerns could mean China is targeting the U.S. only, or that the tech involved is so advanced other countries aren't seeing the same thing, or that the CIA, FBI, and NSA are just wrong. Any or al of these outcomes are possible.

Huawei insists that these claims are false and that their products have the highest standards when it comes to security and privacy. That's to be expected, and could very well be the truth. We're not here to refute or affirm any of these claims, but I feel it is important that everyone knows why Huawei is being singled out in the sea of Chinese electronics manufacturers. When it comes to functionality, features, and value we can assess Huawei products and we all appreciate how good they are.

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.

141 Comments

Now here comes all the keyboard warrior "national security experts" to say it's not true..
Its comical how many 'experts' there are here. I work in telecom, mainly long haul fiber optics, for everyone from wireless providers, ISP and tech companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Not one of these network comments is intelligible. I can say that because I'm actually expert in that area. For the reasoning behind the NSA, FBI, who ever for banning... its secret, they have their reasoning and even if it strictly financial (I doubt it), that good enough for me.
Then maybe you can explain why only the U.S have taken issue with Huawei?
Because it seems like Huawei is the only to make the carrier equipment as mentioned by the article. I think that is what poses the larger issue, not the phones.
Cisco which has the most to lose from Huawei's success contributes nearly double to lobbyists and politicians. opensecrets.org The other companies are not a threat to Cisco. Also for over a decade Huawei has been stealing industrial secrets. Here are two examples which span 14 years: A) Huawei copied IOS 2003 (vs Cisco) https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10485560675556000
B) Huawei committed industrial espionage 2017 (vs T-Mobile) https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/huawei_spied_us_jury_finds/
Then maybe you should look at the industrial espionage China has committed over time. If you were going to gain access to business secrets which country would you commit to? It's pretty simple, why is this not clear?
Spoken like a true slave of the system
I mistrust ZTE, but it's because this Max Pro is an enormous piece of $#&!
LOL 😂
I love my LG Stylo 3 plus!! 👍👍
What does that have to do with anything lol
I have the LG Stylo 3 and I love it that's what it has do with it😁😁😁
Opinions vary. I have an Axon 7 and it's been a great experience for me.
Exactly, LG Stylo 3 plus 👍👍👍
So is this Blade Z Max. Not enough RAM for a phone this size.
Good write up, I agree. The networking equipment ban is understandable, the phones not so much.
So in other words, it's possible there is a threat, but it is beyond my comprehension to fully ascertain whether it is true or not... Programmatically there is a butt load you can do... Granted working with the mobile OS for apps is an extreme subset of the larger version... But being at the driver level - who knows... Anything is possible. Years ago I was told there was an OS (I think it was Linux based) embedded on the CMOS chip for desktops - that was interesting. To monitor machine language at the chip level - I don't know how to do that... I'm afraid I've been out of the programming frame of mind too long...
The NSA planted spyware (ShotGiant) on Huawei equipment to spy on them to find any links to the Chinese military and to snoop on every other government using Huawei which is most countries. After over 2 years they found zero evidence but decided they shouldn't be trusted anyway? Let's be honest here, this is all just part of a trade war between the US and China and Huawei are an easy target.
I'm not Chinese or American so couldn't really care less about the US being blocked from buying Huawei devices. Huawei would like to sell their phones there too but they aren't really bothered, they've continued to grow rapidly regardless and from what I've read they'll be doubling down on European sales instead to make up for any sales lost in the US so Apple and Samsung will still lose marketshare to Huawei and they'll largely be unaffected
"...and they'll largely be unaffected" Nice spin, but certainly inaccurate. US is the largest high-end market in the world, and Huawei want's a piece of that action.
Of course they do. I'm not that naive but as they've had close to zero penetration in the US up til now anyway there not actually losing anything. Huawei will go for Plan B now like I said and will market the hell out of Europe instead to recoup a lot of the lost sales they had forecast in the US
I agree, the US buys more flagships than any other country, that's why Huawei wants a piece of the action!
Well the states will look stupid and another ten years out of date if the chinese gov bans ALL chinese firms from allowing 5g network kit to be sold/used in the usa,what you going to do then ?
Nokia are next biggest network supplier,they us huawie hardware too !1
We'll do our own...
Well I'm glad to hear that ZTE is ok for now. Im planning on getting one of the new ZTE Tempo Go phones as a backup. Haven't had one for a long time. It's cheap and functional so it's perfect for me.
They did ask people to also not use ZTE phones. Not sure they're as worried because ZTE is a lot smaller than Huawei.
As the author indicated, it's not ZTE's size. It's the fact that they use off-the-shelf hardware in their phones such as Qualcomm chips, unlike Huawei.
The US government never trusted Huawei. When Sprint took total control of Clearwire one of the stipulations of that was Sprint had to remove all of the Huawei networking equipment. This was a huge blow to Sprint in the LTE build out since the equipment was easily upgradable to support LTE by a simple card swap rather than a total site rebuild.
Who says they trust Lenovo? The DoD issued a warning againsy Lenovo already in 2016. And they drew their consequences. At this point I don’t think any electronic product made in China is trustworthy. There’s some major spying operation (or worse) going on at the moment, with threats coming both from China and Russia (or potentially a collaboration between the two)
Lots of threats from America at the moment as well, due to the grab em bye the ***** idiot sat in the whitehouse.
So to use that logic, we were in danger with Clinton in the WH. Obama did this same thing so you must think Obama is an id10t as well. You're an id10t
May be the problem is the NSA cannot spy as with other brands, and not that Huawei or China do spy.
As their is no prove China spy and there is a lot that USA spies, foreign countries and tehir own population when their constitution says: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search ,,," "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ..." "No law of Congress can place in the hands of officials connected with the Postal Service any authority to invade the secrecy of letters and such sealed packages in the mail; and all regulations adopted as to mail matter of this kind must be in subordination to the great principle embodied in the fourth amendment of the Constitution." And by extension the secrecy of letters can be translated to secret of tele communications too, but we know it is not the case.
You have no idea what information they have Mr. armchair lawyer.
"Follow the money." My guess is US intelligence & political interests want the backbone of the upcoming 5G network built by American, or at least western friendly corporations. Billions are up for grabs, in what is kind of an all or nothing deal. America doesn't want to hand over all the mobile infrastructure work to China. The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Whatever concerns American intelligence has, they have shared their concerns with their partners. FVEY works very closely together, 24/7. As a consumer, the outcome is terrible. If you had four true premium smartphone companies competing for business, then prices would drop. There is Apple alone in iOS, competing with Samsung, Google, and you might argue LG.... That's it. I do notice the Huawei P10 is available through Bell Canada for 🇨🇦$649 (that's $455 🇺🇸) on no contract. It's nothing special, but a value choice for some people. https://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Products/Huawei-P10 The joke in Canada is the high cost of mobile and data plans. A premium smartphone is expensive... But my God... To use it heavily with mobile data will cost you about $75 a month for 12GB of just data.... A monthly bill of $120-$120 is typical.
To change the subject, I have a co-worker that says a new mobile platform is in the works - all satellite driven instead of using cell towers. He was saying it could go online shortly - a few years... Maybe less... Cheaper? Probably not. I'll agree, to be secure, one has to make the proprietary equipment yourself. Is that what's driving this - I don't know - but possible... I'm not totally against the idea. But there is always outside influence and tampering...
You may be right, but how do you deal with the time delay from satellites? It takes a second or more to bounce up and back. If you thought Samsung skins were laggy before....
Truthfully I don't know - acceptance I guess...
Think Low Earth Orbit, not Geosynchronous.
Absolutely. And think 5G - eventually. I wonder if this person may be referring to Musk's "Starlink" initiative. I'm hoping like heck that it succeeds and becomes a viable alternative to the stranglehold of the current cadre of lowlife broadband monopolies in the US.
I'm sure if the Chinese government really wanted to hack into the US phone network it could.
I seems strange to me no other government seems to have an issue.
Well, thats what they are supposedly gearing up to do in the future. Other countries aren't so worried as they aren’t a target, or threat, to the chinese government as we are.
Strange that our GCHQ who are to suppose to work closely with their American counter parts, continue to collaborate with Huawei. See links below: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/07/china-huwaei-cell-uk-... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/02/20/uk-cyber-security-agen... Definitely looks like political to me.
The UK is no threat to anyone though
Neither is the US anymore. Spent force my friend. They should be afraid of China.
I think there is a lot more here than meets the eye. China and some Chinese companies have used hacking to steal industrial secrets for years including designs for phones, power stations and a lot more. The US also spies on China. Everyone spies on everyone else. The question is whether this was done for security reasons, or economic ones, buy theoretically, either one is justified if you believe that the US doesn't do the same. Having said that, Dell's computers, Apple's laptops, iPhones etc are all made in Chinese factories. There have been many cases of Dell, Microsoft, and other laptops which were built by subcontractors not owned by the Chinese government, but that a tiny % of had spyware built right into the chipsets or motherboard components. They continue to try to get in wherever they can, and again, perhaps we do too. Huawei may be a bigger risk to the US govt, but all of the items built there are at risk due to moles in companies like Foxconn. Life has to go on. If we stopped using everything made in China, we would have to stop using all tech. It's complicated for sure.
Apple is probably behind this since they want to be the biggest selling Chinese phone in the American market.
They're not a Chinese phone. Huawei is part of the Chinese government.
ZTE and Lenovo illegally turn over user data when asked. Huawei does not. Not to China. Not to the US.
I'm sure the Chinese government is interested in intercepting a bored housewife's text to her husband "don't forget to pick up eggs"-type texts. 🙄
Arguably a laughable comment.
Clearly you don't understand what you're saying
The intelligence agencies have back doors on all platforms, but probably not on Huawei's. Hopefully The Donald with dismantle, reorganize these agencies after cleaning up #DeepState.
You must have insider knowledge. I'm rather surprised that "the intelligence agencies" decided to share their little secrets with you. How special.
Your sarcasm is weak
It's no secret. It was all exposed by Obama
Im pretty damn sure with how big of a mouth he has on his face and twitter, he hasnt been told a single real actual deep secret by anyone. And considering hes been in office how long now, he isnt gonna break up or clean up anything other thay what makes him and his friends money. Sorry to say he doesnt give a crap about u pal.
That's funny. He's done more good in his term than Obama did evil in his 8 treacherous years. And get this...Obama did basically the same thing and said nothing! Where's your outrage now?
That's sounds legit
We need to reaquire the internet that our former president gave up. I have always had an issue with Huawei. The federal government allows Samsung, Moto and a few others as there may an agreement on security. Less so with Huawei. I feel comfortable with the government's position on this. I will err on the side of our federal government trying to protect US security.
Meanwhile, Apple and Samsung executives rock back in their chairs grinning. Both companies are very capable of doing what Huawei is accused of.
Samsung wont cause their very existence would be threatened if the US ever decided to block their stuff....not just phones but tvs, receivers, speakers, etc... They do WAY too much of their business in our shops to EVER risk loosing it.
Ditto on Apple. They thought china would be their new golden egg...didnt work out. The US is still by FAR their main source of revenue. They would never risk loosing that business by being banned.
As long as Samsung uses the snapdragon chipset in the US they have no issues. The government just doesn't want the exynos stateside
The exynos chip is not CDMA capable that's why we get the Snapdragon chip?
YOu mean being in bed directly with the Chinese government and giving them secrets willingly? I seriously doubt it
So long story short: Huawei is becoming too powerful, too popular, is sporting less American internals, so the U.S government wants to throttle that power? So hard to be 100% sure who's telling the truth. There are some valid points about certain things though.
Where were you when Obama wanted to do this? What's your source?
So if Huawei allows another company to make the chips or like a Snapdragon 845 version, then it'd be all good?
Makes you wonder. A lot how like only Snapdragon are allowed to put the SOC in American Samsung phones while the rest of the world use their own Exynos
The Snapdragon deal with Samsung was because Qualcomm chips handled American networks using CDMA technology. CDMA was officially shut off & terminated in Canada about a year ago, but still is in use in America. Samsung will also be first to receive 5G LTE modems from Samsung in their phones. But... Samsung Exynos CPU chips are now superior... They can do 4K UHd video at 120 frames per second... The latest Snapdragon can't.
1-Japan actually still uses CDMA and is a very large mobile market too.
2-When you have a 6 inch screen, I hope like hell it DOESNT have a 4k UHD screen...cause the small of a screen, you wont see or notice the extra pixels but your BATTERY will sure as hell will.
So they fact they can do that is nothing more then a marketing spec and not a practical one...something qualcom understands a bit better.
I doesn't matter at this point if it's true or not. From a liability and insurance standpoint, you have been warned. If something turns out to be vulnerable, do you want to be the guy responsible for a data breach? Would your employer be understanding if their data was compromised by your decision to ignore the warning? I doubt it.
I think it's the credibility of the said warning that's in discussion here.
Any organisation can put out a warning for whatever reasons they like.
US secretary thinks there is a threat ( so they say. ) The rest of the world does not.
The US government also "warned" everybody that Saddam Hussein had WMDs, so, how those things unfolded?
They did. They used them against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Did they use all of them? Nope. Most went to syria before we invaded because most of the ones that were allegedly detroyed by russia were...ahem...Iraqi.
And even if they did. Who cares? We have WMDs. Who are we to tell another country that they can't have any? We're not "the good guys" and won't be until we stop killing our own unarmed citizens for no reason.
You had a valid argument till your last statement. Who are we to tell? The UN, that’s who. Many nations around the world put forth the outlawing of chemical and biological weapons for use during war. We just enforce it.... well, we try. We have WMD,s. Yup, we do. Also, we don’t gas or bomb our own citizens. Now to your last comment, if the assailant did what was asked, stop, freeze, get down and etc., and not run, taunt, or actually (god forbid) commit a crime, then that wouldn’t be a problem to the extent it is today. Now would it?
You my friend are in the wrong country. Have you been paying attention to what Iran, NK and Russia are doing? Seriously?? You need to stop listening and believing sound bytes and start thinking. Unfortunately your generation is our future......are we in trouble!!
They sure did. Look at Syria. Pull your head out of Hillary's ***.
Could it be that all parties are right? That it is true that the US is using this matter for political and economical gain? Certainly, to date I have not witnessed an action by the US that was not profitable in some way. Is there a real threat from China in the form of Huawei? You'd be foolish to think not. As said by many in this article China is advanced in a number of technologies in which the US is lagging behind and their sheer power of their cyber security division is second to none in my opinion. With the combination of a government that has total rule over it's people and corporations China can do what ever it pleases and with it's power can deny whatever allegations are thrown it's way as usual. China is no stranger to intellectual theft and for those who say that their gov would not be interested in some house wives data must not know anything of social engineering for people are the weakest security point in any company/system. And looking from a nihilist point, if I was a powerful country how would I want to defeat another powerful country? Physical war is too damaging and costly for most countries. But why not if declared... In one fell swoop you break everything around that country including the infrastructure, communication, businesses and it's citizenry. If something is to big to fail you just break everything around it and watch it collapse on itself. Steal money from it's citizens (fund your way), steal from and shut down corporations (secure no competition), destroy communication and infrastructure (complete chaos). Huawei is a very impressive brand so Americans would easily invest in them, so cons would have a stronger foot hole in America making that strike scenario more plausible. And I think that may weigh on politicians minds especially with a president who is itching to go to war on anything and has the temperament of an agitated Tasmanian devil with nothing to lose.
He's itching to go to war, and yet, we are involved in less wars than with Obama. Funny how memory fades so quickly when one is consumed by hate like you.
Are we? We're still in Iraq and Syria. Have a big presence in Afghanistan, and be just increased the military budget dramatically, hired John Bolton, and threatens war with Iran and N. Korea on Twitter every few days.
Also, the p***y grabber in chief has said that he wants to put even more troops back into Afghanistan.
No he doesn't. You lose all credibility when you use terminology like that considering Clinton and Kennedy. I think there's a move called Chappaquidick coming out. Sound familiar? You have no foothold my little friend
No. He's trying to gain what we had before Obama. Respect! Obama and his creation of the Arab Spring, Gun running, FBI and IRS attack dogs, Benghazi.....Trump is getting us respect. Go to Venezuela to see how your ideology works out
Your right - we must protect our communication and infrastructure at all costs. I don't think that can be arguable.
Tasmanian devil! Love that!
The joke is 🇺🇸 intelligence freaks out about foreign espionage in America.... Meanwhile they hack, spy, & monitor / record every phone call made to the Middle East, hack the phones of friends like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, etc, etc.... Do as I say, not as I do.... But I'm confident America wants Qualcomm to provide 5G LTE network hardware. Follow the money. 5G will require a tonne of hardware, including on each floor of your home... The bandwidth doesn't penetrate walls well. But the upside is the crazy speed... An average expected is 10GB per second. All mobile carriers will resort to affordable unlimited data plans. 5G will also be a high speed internet service solution for rural locations. 5 G is a very, very big deal. Once 5G is available widely... The resale value of 4G LTE only phones will essentially go to zero. Unless you must buy a phone, wait for 5G LTE.
I have to smile, here in the UK you're lucky to get 2 or 3G in many parts and we have loads of dead areas with nothing.
Suppose that's why it's only £20 a month for 100GB or data.
What network are you on? Sounds like Vodafone lol. Things have definitely improved lately. I live in Scotland and find the only places I get dead spots now is when I drive in to very remote areas.
I go to Scotland quite a bit and it's great M74 miles from anywhere through the boarders and 4G!
I live in a small village in south Yorkshire.
Nothing on 02, 3 or Vodafone.
Get good phone signal now but only about 120K/s. Data
Even our broadband is crap 3-4 MBps.
You do realize how long it takes to actually fully deploy a network right? Its going to be YEARS before 5g has the same coverage as 4g...which btw still doesnt have the same footprint as 3g. Im not gonna wait 3-5-7-9 years for a 5g phone when i need a new one.
China will stop at nothing to be able to crush our infrastructure in case of a war. Being able to disable or turn our communications against us would be priority number one. I don't trust our govt as far as i can throw them, but i trust them a million times more than i do the chinese or russians.
"China will stop at nothing to be able to crush our infrastructure in case of a war." But really, can you blame them? What do you think we'd want to do to China's infrastructure "in case of war"? I'm not trying to defend China. I'm simply saying that I'd understand their motives if what you say is true.
In case of war!!
Bloody hell when all those nukes go off it won't be too good for the networks regardless of hacked servers...
But in the meantime, we just let them do it and make it easier? No. Would they sit there and let us do it? No.
Actually no they wont....the reason is despite the fact they are essentially the new "2nd" world power next to the US, their economy, no matter who much they diversify, is deeply intertwined and dependent on ours. If our economy tanks, doesnt matter how much business they do with other parts of the world, THEIR economy tanks with ours...badly.
Its in their vested interest to keep out economy strong in turn to keep theirs.
They do right now. But if a war did break out between us, the economy is the last thing on anyone’s minds.
Yes and I would be pissed off if as the bombs are going off all around me I couldn't call for a pizza.
Lol. You could, but pizza might be delivered a little late!
Tinfoil hat time again! I am so lucky I live in Canada and I going to the store as soon as they have the 20 pro available.
We're lucky people like you live in Canada!
I can understand the government not wanting telecom and government entities not wanting them use the equipment but IDGAF if China is actually spying on me. It's not like American companies aren't already doing this.
Ex-freaking-actly. The NSA is already doing that. I'd trust China's government more than our current one...
REally? I think you need to really think about that statement
More government hysteria to control the sheep.....law enforcement, drugs, terrorism, and now the bogeyman in your device....keep electing, keep losing...
As an outsider of the US looking in I find your comment bang on the money. The US government has made its citizens so paranoid that they can now say or do anything and people blindly believe them. Here in the UK isn't all that different. It's just our government are hell bent on starting a war with Russia instead of China or North Korea
Starting a war with Russia?
I assume you exaggerate for effect?
Be a bloody short and very hot war!
Yeah maybe a little but Theresa May seems like she's trying to pick a fight she can't win with Russia right now after the spy poisoning. Something really doesn't add up there and Russia is the last country on earth she wants to be trying that with. She's poking a wasps nest with a stick and it's us that'll get stung
I read your comments and just wonder what planet you come from? So she's just going to ignore a nerve agent being deployed in her country and has/had the potential to infect more than the targeted victims?
So why didn't it? It was allegedly deployed at their front door yet they had a normally uniformed police officer standing against the door guarding the property for days afterwards? I'm not saying Russia aren't responsible but I wouldn't put it past our own mob to have carried it out and pointed the finger at Putin.
It's classic (and I mean old) KGB tactics. Just like they have pictures of Trump doing inappropriate things when he tried to get his hotels there a while back. That's classic KGB too, get someone in a compromising situation and then use it for leverage. No other explanation for Trumps handling of Russian affairs.
Handling? He's done nothing. He's not guilty of anything. The left is the side that did everything. There's nothing but proof!
You're right, he should have nuked Moscow already. Oh well, we'll let May do it since Putin doesn't have the goods on her.
In the US, we have something to lose so we have to protect it. Everyone else is irrelevant but you better be careful, if something happens to us it affects you too as you can't keep your handout
Here he is though. Back with his verbal diarrhea 😂
Elect whom? It was Obama’s tirade against Huawei first. Not trump. Simple facts....
Don't confuse them with facts!!
Big reason why blackberry 10 os never got supported or was blocked from making any progress. Facebook and the rest of the spying social networks didn't like the idea of secure OS....BB10 is still more secure and more stable than every os. Secure phones are against the law.
BB10 doesn't exist anymore or it isn't supported
I don't trust the United States government any more than I do China's. If the US government is taking a stand in a companies affairs it's because some US corporation can't get a foothold into their competitions market. Has no more to do with national security than the invasion of Iraq did. It's all bull turds.
Agreed.
Here is a very simple way to understand the concern. You know the recent chip vulnerability in Intel chips, Meltdown and Spectre? That can be used to hack and run malicious code?
Well, those were accidental and not intended. And they were so "low level" it took how long to finally find them?? Now imagine if Huawei, who makes their own chips and the firmware that goes with them, makes a Meltdown and Spectre vulnerability but do so INTENTIONALLY. It would take a long time to find and detect...once it IS found, they can turn around and say "Oh it was an accident..like Intels"...and the whole time could potentially give access to that vulnerability to their government. Not saying it is happening...but it could....and that is the concern.
Yes but no one was looking at the Intel chips. I understand it the world's security experts have been over the Huawei chips for months and found nothing.
Probably the safest chips there are.
More likely in my opinion US security can't break their encryption and are uncomfortable with their citizens having secure networks they can't spy on. PS just feeding the paranoid.
They did though. That’s how they found those low level security holes in intel, and now AMD chips. Just because though they haven’t found anything in Huawei yet, doesn’t mean other methods aren’t being used. I’m not saying Huawei is guilty or innocent. I’m saying it’s possible that Chinese owned and manufactured goods are being used to slowly infiltrate our infrastructure.
I was unaware the security agencies where the ones that found the Intel security issue.
I assumed as reported it was discovered by Intel themselves.
I'll inform GCHQ, Mossad, KGB and DGSE they should look again...
Actually it was CTS, enSilo, and a few others that found the issues. But these firms work with Israeli and US intelligence. So no, it was not intel themselves. They just confirmed the issue was a “real” flaw. Inform the DPRK, and Iranian intelligence as well while your at it. Doing more research, it was 4 independent research labs that found the holes at the same time. Sounds fishy to me. But they handed the research over to CTS and a few other security firms that work with Israeli and US intel. And like I said, intel just confirmed it.
I bow to your obvious superior knowledge on this.
But in all honesty Intel chips or processors having a security issue "is" massive.
Those chips are in a lot of very important computers and I can understand US reluctance to using Huwia equipment in their infrastructure but
I can't see how phones ( just the handsets) running on US networks could really be the same sort of a security issue?
Exactly! That’s been my point including the war scenario. Gain access, then shut it all down if a war should ever break out. Although it’s more espionage than anything, but the former could hold true.
What about OnePlus? They have a history of scraping data.
They’ve asked to not use them as well. That’s why the articles that they might pull out of the US market.
Because Huawei threatens Samsung and Apple. US could also be attempting to hurt Chinese economy.
Because the US government wants to be able to spy and access people info. Huawei using the Kirin SoC makes it harder for the US government so they wanna ban them.
Ummmm....ZTE is on the list... And Honor/Haawei is using Kirin silcon that they won't won't release the code on...
They have, and do, go to XDA devs, and read up on how friendly huawei is now.
If you don't have Facebook on your Huawei phone, you shouldn't have any security or privacy issues.
Well, if Huawei really wanted to get in the U.S. market and put to rest fears of security issues they could use a Snapdragon chipset. You know, OnePlus and Samsung use them after all.
I wonder why huawei doesn't do what Samsung does, and put snapdragons in place of their chip for the US market? They've done it before(honor 5x), and it sold very well. Until there is unequivocal proof (ya know , true facts), I will have no problems buying huawei phones.
Some of these things I do not understand, drones made by DJI, like the Phantom. Are one of the top rated. And this past year it was discovered that they are sending information to China, but they are still being sold. Just like the floor cleaning robot, romba, that maps out your home, and they sell that info to, you guessed it, China. But that is OK.
Selling in China and being aprt of the Chinese government is something different
I'll chime in.
Huawei has been actively engaged, maybe not now, but in the past of industrial espionage.
They copied Cisco source code and designs. The source code theft was so bad that bugs were the exact bugs in Cisco products. The founder of Huawei is a former military officer in The People's Liberation Army. I won't buy another Huawei phone because the support is horrible.
Ask anyone that had issues from a Nexus 6P that didn't buy Google's Nexus Protect.
AC Editors: Seriously, with the typos in every article STILL?! I try to promote your site at every chance I get, but that's continually hard to do when you can't perform basic proofreading / spellcheck, and most articles therefore look like they were written by a total amateur. You'll never be a mainstream tech blog due to this... It'd been this way for many many years now. I still stumble upon these typos in every single article.
I count 6 as I was quickly reading thought this article:
- "end produts" (supposed to be "products")
- "gear an its" (supposed to be "and")
- "to do and they say" (needs a comma)
- "conencted" (was this supposed to be "connected"?)
- "sophisticated spyware they are only" (desparately needs a comma)
- "or al of" (supposed to be "all") Seriously, Android Central... Grow up already (as a tech news outlet), please!... So that I can promote you as such.
I'm just dreading the day tech sites start writing articles in emojis.

Show more comments

Get the Android Central Newsletter