Huawei pushes back at claim that it has secret access to mobile networks

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials say that Huawei has secret access to mobile networks.

These ‘backdoors’ are meant to be used by law enforcement, but the report alleges that Huawei has had this covert capability for more than a decade. This comes as the U.S. is persuading its allies, including Canada, to exclude Huawei from 5G deployment.

The Chinese telecom company has since released a statement saying that it does not have secret access to telecom networks.

“US allegations of Huawei using lawful interception are nothing but a smokescreen – they don’t adhere to any form of accepted logic in the cyber security domain,” Huawei claims in the statement.

Huawei went on to call out the Wall Street Journal and said that the publication does not have any proof regarding its allegations and that it chose to publish what Huawei says are lies being spread by the U.S.

“This reflects the Wall Street Journal‘s bias against Huawei and undermines its credibility.”

Huawei says that its role as a telecoms vendor is to provide equipment that follows standards and is obligated to follow industry-wide lawful interception standards. It then explained that the actual administration and use of lawful interception interfaces is conducted by carriers and regulators.

The company says that it does not have the ability to bypass carriers, access control and take data from networks without being detected by security systems.

Canada has yet to decide whether it will allow Huawei to participate in the deployment of the next generation of wireless technology.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Huawei