Huawei opens Brussels Cyber Security Transparency Centre
Amid a period of intense scrutiny around the world, technology giant Huawei has opened a cyber security transparency centre in Brussels.
around the world, technology giant Huawei has opened a cyber security transparency centre in Brussels.
In a statement on the centre, Huawei said trust in cyber security is a major challenge facing the world in the digital era. Developments in the likes of cloud computing, intelligence, and software-defined everything are posing unprecedented challenges to the cyber security of ICT infrastructure, it argued.
“The lack of consensus on cyber security, technical standards, verification systems, and legislative support further exacerbates these challenges. Safeguarding cyber security is considered to be a responsibility held by all industry players and society as a whole. Growing security risks are significant threats to future digital society,” the company said.
“Trust needs to be based on facts, facts must be verifiable, and verification must be based on common standards,” said Ken Hu, deputy chairman, Huawei. “We believe that this is an effective model to build trust for the digital era.”
The new Cyber Security Transparency Centre aims to offer government agencies, technical experts, industry associations, and standards organisations a platform to communicate and collaborate to balance security and development in the digital era, said Huawei.
According to the company, the centre will have three main functions.
Firstly to showcase its own “end-to-end cyber security practices, from strategies and supply chain to R&D and products and solutions,” which it says will allow “visitors to experience cyber security with Huawei’s products and solutions, in areas including 5G, IoT, and cloud.”
Secondly, the centre will facilitate communication between Huawei and what it describes as “key stakeholders on cyber security strategies and end-to-end cyber security and privacy protection practices”. The company said it will work with industry partners to explore and promote the development of security standards and verification mechanisms, to facilitate technological innovation in cyber security across the industry.
Finally, the centre will provide a product security testing and verification platform and related services to Huawei customers.
Huawei said it has placed cyber security and user privacy protection at “the very top” of its agenda, its approach being “Security or Nothing”.
The cyber security transparency centres are open to customers and independent third-party testing organisations. There, it said, they are invited to perform fair, objective, and independent security tests and verifications according to industry-recognised cyber security standards and best practices.
“These centres are equipped with dedicated testing environments,” said Huawei, “to provide customers and third parties with Huawei products, software, technical documents, testing tools, and necessary technical support”.
“We fully understand cyber security concerns that people have in this digital world. I believe that good solutions to solve the issue start from mutual understanding, which is the purpose we set up the transparency centre here today,” said Hu. “We welcome all regulators, standards organisations, and customers to fully use this platform to collaborate more closely on security standards, verification mechanisms, and security technology innovation. Together, we can improve security across the entire value chain and help build trust through verification.”
“A prosperous Digital Europe requires an open and future-oriented cyber security environment. Europe has released the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is an open, transparent, and globally leading data and privacy protection standard. We believe that European regulators are on track to lead the international community in terms of cyber security standards and regulatory mechanisms. We commit to working more closely with all stakeholders in Europe, including regulators, carriers, and standards organizations, to build a system of trust based on facts and verification,” said Hu.
The move is unlikely to placate the United States administration. In August of 2018, as part of the Defense Authorization Act, both Huawei and ZTE were banned from being US government or public sector contractors. Canada and Australia have made similar moves.
In February, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that the United States would not share information with countries or allies that used Huawei equipment in 5G networks, highlighting that Europe had both Ericsson and Nokia Networks as alternatives.
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