Security News Pentagon Bans Huawei and ZTE Devices from Bases

[LASER_oneXM]

Content source

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/pentagon-bans-huawei-and-zte/

The US has turned up the pressure on Chinese technology firms after the Department of Defense ordered all military bases to stop selling Huawei and ZTE devices out of security concerns.
The Pentagon is also said to be considering whether to follow this up with an advisory for all armed force personnel.

“Huawei and ZTE devices may pose an unacceptable risk to the department’s personnel, information and mission. In light of this information, it was not prudent for the department’s exchanges to continue selling them,” an official statement sent to the Wall Street Journal read.

The move comes after Verizon and AT&T dropped distribution deals for Huawei handsets after alleged pressure from Washington while Best Buy also announced earlier this year that it won’t be selling any gadgets from the world’s second largest smartphone maker. Huawei and ZTE have long been viewed with suspicion by US lawmakers who believe that their close ties to Beijing mean products could be backdoored by Chinese intelligence agencies to spy on foreign targets.
In 2012 a congressional report banned the duo from competing for US telecoms infrastructure projects.

 

[Ink]

Because American-based companies are far more trust-worthy.

 

[upnorth]

Wow! Smart move against the largest telecom equipment supplier in the world. Good luck and why stop there. Go for everything that says " Made in China ".

Spoiler

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Interesting to say the least! I understand where they are coming from, but… Then again like @upnorth has mentioned…..

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

Because American-based companies are far more trust-worthy.

You woke.

There is a bit more to this than meets the eye.. Infosec and Cybersecurity people have 'lately' been saying that it is probably safer for US Citizens and Personnel to use Huawei and ZTE devices. Then to apply appropriate privacy policies and privacy tools/encryption to those devices. Largely subverting US Intelligence backdoors installed in other brands.

I do not believe it's coincidence this move comes after a few months of talk in those infosec circles, and several big privacy oriented bloggers moving to ZTE/Huawei and other vendors to avoid pre-shipment backdoored US Partners.

 

[Ink]

In case anyone misunderstood my previous post.

Facebook. A very reliable American company.
Google, boss of data.
Microsoft. Clean competitor.

 

[jogs]

Companies in US made huge profits in the past by outsourcing manufacturing to China. Production cost was too low but selling price was much higher, so profits were very high. Now, these Chinese companies have started selling products on their own, so the companies are losing. And now the US govt. is coming to their rescue. Ultimately its the common people who are going to loose.

 

[ZeroDay]

I just generally follow the rule that if the US and UK government ban it or dislike it I'm going to use it. Within reason of course.

 

[Entreri]

Any kind of privacy, use an Apple product. Secure as well compared to their competitors.

I wouldn't trust any Chinese IT products. If China was a democratic country...ok. China is banning even VPN's now.

How to keep yourself safe from Chinese spyware on budget Android phones

Apple doesn't make money on your data. Google on the other hand...Win10 is a spy fest, very disappointed in M$ (really hated doing all those edits to the registry, blocking ip's etc).

 

[Deleted member 65228]

LOL? Apple?

Do you know how many PIN pass-code bypasses have been invented over the past 5 years?

Plus there's a company that government agencies can send the iPhone devices to now which have their own device allegedly capable of cracking any iPhone device, if I recall correctly. Who knows if it even works very well though.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

Any kind of privacy, use an Apple product. Secure as well compared to their competitors..

I was looking for sarcasm here, but you missed it.

You do realize, Apple is probably the worse privacy offender in the world, right? The whole 'Apple won't help the FBI unlock a phone' thing was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Way way back in 2011 Apple signed up with the NSA's Prism program. Cellebrite has multitudes of tools to not only unlock iPhones, but to duplicate their contents without unlocks.

iOS might have a backdoor that can be used to hack into any iPhone, even the iPhone X

If anything, you are better off with Android because you can replace the backdoored default applications with your own encryption and secured applications. Apple you are pretty much stuck with Apple. Any trust in Apple is almost entirely unfounded.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

LOL? Apple?

Do you know how many PIN pass-code bypasses have been invented over the past 5 years?

Plus there's a company that government agencies can send the iPhone devices to now which have their own device allegedly capable of cracking any iPhone device, if I recall correctly. Who knows if it even works very well though.

You mean Cellebrite.. LOL I have access to one, they are cheap, and they can dupe LOCKED iPhones in about 90 seconds. You don't even need to send them off to Cellibrite anymore, you can just buy one of the tools. Corporations actually own these now for extractions and duping on employee loaner phones and especially handy for employees that leave and don't provide the pin.

 

[Entreri]

I was looking for sarcasm here, but you missed it.

You do realize, Apple is probably the worse privacy offender in the world, right? The whole 'Apple won't help the FBI unlock a phone' thing was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Way way back in 2011 Apple signed up with the NSA's Prism program. Cellebrite has multitudes of tools to not only unlock iPhones, but to duplicate their contents without unlocks.

iOS might have a backdoor that can be used to hack into any iPhone, even the iPhone X

If anything, you are better off with Android because you can replace the backdoored default applications with your own encryption and secured applications. Apple you are pretty much stuck with Apple. Any trust in Apple is almost entirely unfounded.

All the US majors likely collaborators prior to the Snowden leaks. Now they may not be directly supporting, given the scrutiny.

That device is fascinating. I wonder if this is patched in 11.3.1.

With these kind of security holes, it is not surprising some are going back to typewriters.

 

[mekelek]

I would like to thank the US goverment for driving down the price of Chinese quality phones.
ps: now we also know which phones they couldn't backdoor. Chinese backdoor > *, if you're not from China.

 

[dJim]

US gov just want figth without proves.. bah huawei user here forever

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

We also know what phones we'll be buying next! LOL

 

[ZeroDay]

A friend of mine has been using Chinese phones for a while he loves them. I forget which brand he has now but it's an all metal build and general high build quality and it cost him about £250 ish if that was an iPhone or pixel it would cost a lot more. The Android skin on it looks really sleek too.

 

[mekelek]

A friend of mine has been using Chinese phones for a while he loves them. I forget which brand he has now but it's an all metal build and general high build quality and it cost him about £250 ish if that was an iPhone or pixel it would cost a lot more. The Android skin on it looks really sleek too.

xiaomi, zte, oneplus, huawei?

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

A friend of mine has been using Chinese phones for a while he loves them. I forget which brand he has now but it's an all metal build and general high build quality and it cost him about £250 ish if that was an iPhone or pixel it would cost a lot more. The Android skin on it looks really sleek too.

My secret alternative phone is a Chinese one, cheap at $89ish, powerful, and I know I won't be surveilled by local actors when I use it but I do ensure my communications and storage are third party encrypted. My daily drivers are a disliked iPhone X that my employer hands out and a personal (well liked) Samsung Galaxy s8. Neither of those I have ANY illusions of privacy on and act accordingly.

The androids all use fake, keygen named Google Accounts generated with a Neverware USB boot account creation to bypass Google phone number requirement.

 

[ZeroDay]

xiaomi, zte, oneplus, huawei?

xiaomi That's the one