Huawei threat to UK national security can be contained, intelligence chiefs conclude

Other nations including Australia and New Zealand have blocked or banned Huawei from involvement in their 5G networks

Any risk posed by Chinese technology firm Huawei to the UK’s telecoms infrastructure can be contained, cybersecurity bosses have concluded.

Huawei’s equipment is set to be used in the next generation of mobile networks which will connect billions of devices from tablets to smart home appliances, prompting fears that could be used by Beijing for mass data gathering and espionage. But the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said on Monday that it can mitigate any potential spying risks.

The findings are a blow to US government aims to freeze China’s technology champion out of the global rollout of 5G technology, a goal which Huawei says is motivated by trade policy rather than security fears.

Australia and New Zealand have blocked or banned Huawei from involvement in their 5G networks while the US has restricted federal funding to buy Huawei equipment, and Canada is reviewing the potential threat posed by the company’s products.

An NCSC spokesperson said: “The National Cyber Security Centre is committed to the security of UK networks, and we have a unique oversight and understanding of Huawei engineering and cybersecurity.

“As was made clear in July’s [Huawei] oversight board, the NCSC has concerns around Huawei’s engineering and security capabilities. We have set out the improvements we expect the company to make.”

A report on the issue will be published in the “near future”, the spokesperson said.

Former GCHQ boss Robert Hannigan suggested last week the issue was too complex to simply ban the firm from the UK’s super-fast mobile infrastructure, despite defence secretary Gavin Williamson expressing “very deep concerns” about the Chinese company.

The tech giant said it was committed to working with governments around the world and that its sharing of source code with GCHQ’s Huawei oversight body had left the firm “naked”.

Huawei’s president Ryan Ding has denied the firm has any links to Chinese spying operations. In a letter to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee this month, he insisted the firm was not involved with such practices.

But a 2012 US House Intelligence Committee report outlined Huawei’s links to the Chinese state, has since been picked up by other western governments.

Since the report, Beijing has taken a more authoritarian turn under president Xi Jinping, who has abolished term limits in place since the death of Mao Zedong, launched a severe clampdown on domestic dissent, and harnessed the power of online technology to do so.

FBI director Christopher Wray has suggested that Huawei’s smartphones could be used to “maliciously modify or steal information”.

Mr Ding insists that Huawei has never and would never assist any country in gathering intelligence on other countries. However, the assurances have not proved enough to stem the tide of governments and institutions seeking to cut ties or re-evaluate their relationships with the company.

Oxford University suspended research grants from Huawei last month while German chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration is looking at ways to exclude Huawei from the country’s 5G networks.

It follows a concerted push by the Donald Trump’s US administration, which Huawei argues is motivated by trade policy rather than genuine concerns about national security.

In August, Mr Trump banned US government officials from using Huawei devices and those made by another Chinese company, ZTE.

Tensions escalated significantly after the arrest of Huawei finance chief Meng Wanzhou in Canada at the behest of the US government, sparking an unprecedented diplomatic row between Beijing and Washington.

Huawei is a leading supplier of the equipment that underpins the fifth generation of mobile networks. The new infrastructure is 100 times faster than current 4G and will allow billions of devices from cars to gadgets to traffic lights to connect and share data.

Huawei last year surpassed Apple to become the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung.