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Huawei calls the US intel community’s bluff

20 points| howard941 | 6 years ago |asiatimes.com

38 comments

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[+] nrclark|6 years ago|reply
It this article seriously trying to pass off "quantum encryption will be part of 5G networks" with a straight face?

I haven't seen _any_ quantum communications hardware on the market. Of any kind. For any industry. And despite that, it's ready for mass adoption in cell phones? I don't think so.

[+] hamiltont|6 years ago|reply
Not sure that is the argument - by my read, they expect to a quantum network as part of the network core. I cannot tell how far out of the core it would extend (definitely not down to individual mobile devices, but perhaps to individual cells?), which would be the determining factor in how much this affects global SIGINT
[+] Aaronstotle|6 years ago|reply
The issue is that Huawei, like any other Chinese company, is an extended branch of the government. Auditing source code doesn't change the fact that Huawei is legally obligated to turn over data to the CCP.
[+] deepVoid|6 years ago|reply
Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. are all extended branch of the Trump government as well. They collaborated with NSA to spy on other nations and its own people. It is a well-known fact. Google is working with the US military to weaponize AI. Amazon and Microsoft work with the military to weaponize cloud technologies.
[+] ZeroCool2u|6 years ago|reply
Wow, this reads like a CCP propaganda piece.
[+] magashna|6 years ago|reply
Once I saw that the rebuttal is "quantum communications" I just laughed.
[+] HillaryBriss|6 years ago|reply
Based on the article's conclusion, I thought it was part of a funding campaign by the US R&D complex:

One solution might be to cut $60 billion or so out of the US intelligence budget and divert it to a crash R&D program to bring America up to speed in quantum communications and fifth-generation broadband, technologies in which China presently has the lead.

[+] smhenderson|6 years ago|reply
Haven't even read it yet and thought the same based on the title alone.
[+] kube-system|6 years ago|reply
The premise of this article is a straw man and a red herring. I haven't heard anyone in the intelligence community suggest that Huawei has already implemented any back doors in their devices.

The concern is the ongoing support that is inherently necessary with networking equipment.

[+] klingonopera|6 years ago|reply
> I haven't heard anyone in the intelligence community suggest that Huawei has already implemented any back doors in their devices.

I'm not sure I follow you, wouldn't this then not rather imply that it only seems like a straw man if you've been led to believe that they're planning backdoors in their 5G network equipment?

[+] klingonopera|6 years ago|reply
Here are some links about that 2017 quantum video call. I've narrowed down my selection to (perceived, I may be wrong) Western media. Searching the names of both participants appears to yield the best results, they are "Chunli Bai" and "Anton Zeilinger".

It would seem that no China-sympathetic media left it out to herald it as a sensation, whereas in Western media, reports appear to be mostly confined to scientific[0][1] or alternative[2] medias, a notable exception being the DailyMail/tabloid[3] article(?).

I only have a very rudimentary understanding of both cryptography and quantum mechanics, any takes on the actual significance of this?

[0]: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-team-world-space-ground-quantu...

[1]: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/china-s-quantum-sate...

[2]: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwg53k/china-is-another-s...

[3]: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4930302/Chin...

[+] matthewdgreen|6 years ago|reply
This story is amazing. As a professional cryptographer I urge HN to vote it to the top of the front page.
[+] carapace|6 years ago|reply
It feels like it is [amazing], but it also feels like propaganda. (Of course it could be both: propaganda can be based on truth.)

Can you expand a little on why you find it amazing?

[+] mrbonner|6 years ago|reply
I just saw a bunch of Google's Ads about Huawei's "Facts" from the WSJ online edition: ie: "Fact: Ripping and replacing Huawei equipment from the US rural areas will be very difficult..." They are ramping up their campaign against the U.S gov claim.
[+] Frqy3|6 years ago|reply
The telecoms research company I used to work for has decided to get into the business of writing "white papers" for Huawei that are not far removed from this piece of "tech journalism".

Good for short term revenues, but not good for long term reputation. Part of the reason I am no longer working there.

[+] president|6 years ago|reply
Vulnerability to hacking is only a minor issue. It's more about not investing in a company (Huawei) that is in bed with a government party that is and has been looking to undermine US/western interests.
[+] AstralStorm|6 years ago|reply
Whose interests?

US/Western companies have been undermining interests of people living in those countries themselves for quite some time by outsourcing and tax tricks. And ultimately their own as Chinese became good at cloning, then some innovation by portion at things they build...

[+] ethbro|6 years ago|reply
Isn't this just the Qualcomm tax, with a sprinkling of worry about state power without judicial checks?
[+] ttobbaybbob|6 years ago|reply
This article seems to make some pretty big, unsubstantiated claims.

ie "America’s spies hijacked the Trump Administration’s trade agenda and turned into a global campaign against Huawei. This has been a humiliating failure."

They also mention Huawei's founder's interview with the economist: "...in an interview with The Economist:" However The Economist link routes to another asia times article that does not mention The Economist anywhere.

My limited understanding is that quantum cryptography is still a relatively nascent field, and unlikely to be production ready for the roll out of 5G networks (though, admittedly, I could be wrong about this).

In one of the linked to articles (https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/us-china-tech-war-...) they say "The ultimate form of data security is quantum communications, an application of physics that China has pioneered." and link to https://www.insidescience.org/news/china-leader-quantum-comm... which describes a set of events that don't seem to be corroborated by any reputable publication, and don't appear in the wikipedias or publications of the scientists mentioned (despite descriptions of similar, more experimental demonstrations)

I'm not familiar with the Asia Times but this article (and others they link to), at least, seem propaganda-y?

[+] helen___keller|6 years ago|reply
What a beautiful example of garbage tier politically-motivated tech reporting. It checks all the boxes:

New, unhackable technology that the security community doesn't want

Quantum is here to save the day

Trying to connect to current events with absolutely no evidence, including the latest Trump tweet

Party A had bad motivations, but party B has pristine pure motivations the entire time. No evidence is offered to support this.