US official: UK report confirms warnings of Huawei risks

By SUSANNAH GEORGE
March 28, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — A British government report issued Thursday detailing security risks posed by Chinese firm Huawei confirms U.S. government warnings of security risks associated with the telecom giant, according to a U.S. official.

The report from a cybersecurity watchdog identified “significant technical issues” in Huawei’s engineering and warned there is “only limited assurance” the risk can be managed.

The U.S. official said those findings support similar American assessments that concluded Huawei’s equipment cannot be “made safe from Chinese influence or disruption.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief the media publicly.

Huawei denies that its equipment could be used to facilitate spying and Chinese authorities have accused Washington of exaggerating security concerns to limit competition with Western vendors.

Washington is campaigning in Europe and beyond for allies to ban the use of Huawei technology as they develop plans to build new high speed fifth generation, or 5G, mobile networks.

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