[kictanet] [Economic Espionage Risks] Vodafone has 'acknowledged' that it Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment (but says the issues were resolved).

[Patrick A. M. Maina]

Dear Listers,
These kinds of global reports should concern Kenyan business CEOs and Boards in all sectors (as well as economic / technology policymakers) - unless Kenya has little or no interest in competing regionally or internationally to generate new streams of foreign exchange; and even then, are we able to protect our local "home turf" competitive advantage, should multinational actors decide to illegally collect and sell (or leverage) unfairly acquired local business insights, in order to give affiliated new entrants unfair advantage over local enterprises?

These are legitimate and global policy concerns. If such things are happening in advanced, tech-savvy economies, what about here in Africa? Is the world having a party at our expense? 

Trust is good for business - but its is not wise to trust blindly. If we refuse to learn from others, or from history, it will be difficult for us to hand over to our children/youth a future that proves that we played our part responsibly as present-day custodians. 

We need to start thinking of our existence in less selfish terms: as a relay race, where it is our duty to ensure that we pass on a better future to our children/youth. Let's wake each other up. We must start BELIEVING in ourselves and LOVING ourselves so that our children can believe in, and love themselves as well.

Excerpts below:
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Reported by Bloomberg today (30th April 2019): 

"[Vodafone] identified hidden backdoors in the software that could have given Huawei unauthorized access to the carrier’s fixed-line network in Italy, a system that provides internet service to millions of homes and businesses, according to Vodafone’s security briefing documents from 2009 and 2011 seen by Bloomberg, as well as people involved in the situation.
Vodafone asked Huawei to remove backdoors in home internet routers in 2011 and received assurances from the supplier that the issues were fixed, but further testing revealed that the security vulnerabilities remained, the documents show.
Vodafone said Huawei then refused to fully remove the backdoor, citing a manufacturing requirement.
 The April 2011 document was authored by its Chief Information Security Officer at the time, Bryan Littlefair. 'What is of most concern here is that actions of Huawei in agreeing to remove the code, then trying to hide it, and now refusing to remove it as they need it to remain for ‘quality’ purposes,' Littlefair wrote.
'There’s no specific way to tell that something is a backdoor and most backdoors would be designed to look like a mistake,' said Stefano Zanero, an Associate Professor of Computer Security at Politecnico di Milano University. 'That said, the vulnerabilities described in the Vodafone reports from 2009 and 2011 have all the characteristics of backdoors: deniability, access and a tendency to be placed again in subsequent versions of the code,' he said.

Vodafone also identified backdoors in parts of its fixed-access network known as optical service nodes, which are responsible for transporting internet traffic over optical fibers, and other parts called broadband network gateways, which handle subscriber authentication and access to the internet...

In Vodafone’s case, the risks included possible third-party access to a customer's personal computer and home network, according to the internal documents.
However, Vodafone’s account of the issue was contested by people involved in the security discussions between the companies. [who allege that] Vulnerabilities in both the routers and the fixed access network remained beyond 2012 and were also present in Vodafone’s businesses in the U.K., Germany, Spain and Portugal. Vodafone stuck with Huawei because the services were competitively priced, they said."
Links:
1. Vodafone found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipmenthttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-30/vodafone-found-hidden-backdoors-in-huawei-equipment
2. Huawei denies existence of ‘backdoors’ in Vodafone networking equipment
https://www.zdnet.com/article/huawei-denies-existence-of-backdoors-in-vodafone-networking-equipment-brands-them-technical-flaws/
Best regards,Patrick.
Patrick A. M. Maina
[Cross-domain Innovator | Public Policy Analyst - Indigenous Innovations]


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