ZTE's Designation as Security Threat Affirmed by US FCC (bloomberg.com) 27
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission affirmed its decision to designate ZTE as a national security threat over concerns telecommunications gear made by the Chinese company could be used for spying. From a report: The action shows that the FCC remains determined to drive ZTE and fellow Shenzhen-based manufacturer Huawei Technologies Co. from the U.S. market, where small rural carriers rely on their cheap network equipment. The agency at its Dec. 10 meeting is to consider rules for listing prohibited gear, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a Nov. 18 blog post that identified Huawei as a threat. The FCC has said ZTE and Huawei pose a risk of espionage, an allegation each company denies. The agency has increasingly scrutinized Chinese companies amid tensions between Beijing and Washington over trade, the coronavirus and security issues. The FCC is considering banning three Chinese telephone companies, and last year barred China Mobile from entering the American market. The FCC on June 30 designated both companies national security threats, and ZTE asked the agency to reconsider its listing. The company said it supplies safe and secure equipment and is "clearly and fully dedicated to complying with all applicable laws in the United States."
In other words... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:In other words... (Score:4, Interesting)
Hard to know what to make of this. On the one hand taken at face value it's a huge endorsement for ZTE, as it suggests that their products are not vulnerable to NSA/GCHQ attacks.
On the other hand there could be something to it, but since zero credible evidence has been provided we simply don't know.
At least you can often replace the firmware on these Chinese products with an open source one. They aren't as locked down as US products.
Re:In other words... (Score:4, Interesting)
At one point a company I was at was developing a product that would probably be manufactured in China. Crazy days, someone high up designated the manufacturer and no amount of arguing changed it, even though we knew the manufacturer would likely use their Chinese plants. They wanted to ship to customers directly from China, rather than build there and ship to the US for final programming and lockdown. And the customers were industrial and so they did care about security and would have distrusted a generic product manufactured in China. So we were figuring out schemes to manufacture a secure product at an untrusted facility, and there was a good plan in place making use of the chip maker's ability to pre-program and lock some memory and fuses, with random sample audits and so forth. Product eventually died for various unrelated reasons.
The lockdown isn't great for consumer products, especially if you want to buy something cheap to play with and put your own code on; but it's vital for industry where your product could be cloned, the customers demand security agaist hackers, and so forth.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
Of of course so because the NSA backdoor would conflict with the Chinese backdoor and the Chinese backdoor supersedes all other backdoors.
Re: (Score:3)
Wouldn't that be a reason to put in the NSA backdoor? Think about that. Let's just try to actually have a systematic thought about 5th generation warfare.
You have a piece of technology. You have root access to this piece of hardware as long as there is an effective path to the internet and you have this access as a nation-state actor in the cyberspace domain. The company with this piece of hardware is a pawn of your nation-state. Another nation-state is asking you to put a similar root level access into thi
Re: In other words... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmm, I don't think the NSA needs to ask.
They got their own chip fab, and it's well-documented that they redirect imports to a place where they can solder in spyig chips. Though I guess they don't have the capacity to do it en masse. Yet.
And in reality, all it takes is installing their counterfeid CA root certificates, to get some MITM full access. That is so easy, I have literally already done it. (To myself, to trick the Google services into using my own servers instead.)
Seriously (Score:4, Interesting)
All the phone we can buy are made in China usualy in the same place.
So why only ZTE and Huawai ?
Re: Seriously (Score:2)
Price
Re: (Score:2)
They are competing too well. Huawei in particular beat everyone else to 5G by a long way.
Western companies are worried about the amount they are spending on R&D.
Re: (Score:2)
So why only ZTE and Huawai ?
Because they are winning competing against American companies in advanced technology.
Read up about how the French company Alstom eventually got bought up by GE to see how the US govt took a hand to swipe down foreign companies who actually could win against US companies in technology. Or how Japanese companies was beaten down in the 80s.
The difference this time is Huawei was actually somewhat prepared for this and didn't immediately fold. ZTE had already folded a few years ago, already had Americans sitti
As if they gave a shit about spying... (Score:4, Insightful)
Profit is what it's about. Not being able to overprice products because cheaper products from a fake communism ruin the delusion of capitalist superiority. (Before you get your panties in a twist: I dislike Chinese leadership just as much as you. Probably more.)
Otherwise, they'd ban other manufacturers too.
Reminds me of attacking Iraq, while being best buddies with literally-shariah-law Saudi Arabia and literally home-of-terrorist-camps Pakistan.
why my phone is zte (Score:1, Flamebait)
I've had $300 phones and $400 phones from samsung, lg, etc. and they usually brick themselves in less than a year. The touchscreen stops working, or the you-must-hit-this-button-every-time-you-touch-the-phone button wears out. I have a ZTE now for a year and it seems like it's got a decent amount of life in it. Same specs as the other phones but only $100.
Am I worried their custom keyboard app is sending data to china? A little. But it's moot because I'm 100% certain it's sending my keystrokes to google. A
Re: (Score:2)
I'm posting AC on this one because the last time I mentioned China doing something wrong under my slash ID I was hounded for months by trolls everytime I posted anything.
You aren't that important and neither is slashdot.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm posting AC on this one because...
OOPS...