http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/12/cybersecurity_huawei/ 

By Chris Williams
The Register
12th June 2009

Exclusive - Chinese networking giant Huawei is battling suggestions it 
could be in collusion with the Beijing government and could cause 
massive disruption to UK communications in a future cyber conflict.

Concerns have been raised at Cabinet level by senior intelligence 
officials over the presence of the firm's equipment at the centre of 
BT's 21CN network backbone upgrade. They particularly fear an 
undetectable "kill switch" that could disable critical communications if 
relations with China seriously deteriorate.

Similar cybersecurity disquiet has recently frustrated Huawei's progress 
in India, a massive and growing market for networking equipment. Reports 
also emerged last year that the Australian intelligence establishment 
was investigating the firm's involvement in national broadband upgrade 
work.

Official fears over Huawei's equipment are typically founded on the 
firm's origins. Cybersecurity hawks point to its unusual private 
ownership structure and opaque accounting as evidence of its alleged 
government ties. The firm was founded in 1988 by Ren Zhengfei, a former 
People's Liberation Army technology research chief.

[...]


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