Huawei caves to UK security demands with empire under siege

After a meeting with the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Huawei has agreed to address the serious security risks believed to exist within the firm’s equipment and software.

Over the last 4-5 years Huawei has bitterly fought through the 4G era to crown itself king of connectivity, but the empire is starting to collapse. Banned from the US, Australia and New Zealand, with Japan reportedly considering the same, it missed out on the telco’s preferred suppliers list in South Korea and now faces its equipment being stripped out of EE’s core network. It has not been a favourable couple of months.

With customers falling quicker than colleagues at a Christmas party, according to the Financial Times the firm has agreed to stricter technical demands which UK officials believe would the possibility for any nefarious activities. While it doesn’t appear Huawei will play a particularly prominent role in the UK telco’s core networks, it has made a name for itself in the big, bad world of radio. With all the bans it is facing, wins have to be taken wherever possible nowadays.

Looking another one of the most recent rumours Huawei is facing, the Japanese government is considering a ban of its own. According to Reuters, Japan plans to ban government bodies purchasing equipment from Huawei and ZTE in an effort to reduce the cyber security threat. Japanese telcos have not been mentioned, though it might be a fair assumption to assume there would be conditions relating to the pair in any contracts the telcos might seek from government. Huawei currently works with NTT Docomo and KDDI, while Softbank is known to have close ties to the Chinese business.

Making matters worse, European Commissioner for Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip has told reporters at a press conference in Brussels that the bloc certainly does have to worry about Huawei or other Chinese companies. With such an influential individual casting a dark shadow of doubt over Huawei’s reputation, the headache is only set to get worse.

While it has now become commonplace to point the suspicious finger at Huawei, if you would have said at MWC 2016 Huawei would be facing this pressure it would have been unthinkable. The kingdom is crumbling, and the future is looking very ominous for Huawei. A lot can happen in two years.