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national security

07.16.19 telecommunications

No technical reason to exclude Huawei as 5G supplier, says UK committee

A UK parliamentary committee has concluded there are no technical grounds for excluding Chinese network kit vendor Huawei from the country’s 5G networks.

In a letter from the chair of the Science & Technology Committee to the UK’s digital minister Jeremy Wright, the committee says: “We have found no evidence from our work to suggest that the complete exclusion of Huawei from the UK’s telecommunications networks would, from a technical point of view, constitute a proportionate response to the potential security threat posed by foreign suppliers.”

Though the committee does go on to recommend the government mandate the exclusion of Huawei from the core of 5G networks, noting that UK mobile network operators have “mostly” done so already — but on a voluntary basis.

If it places a formal requirement on operators not to use Huawei for core supply the committee urges the government to provide “clear criteria” for the exclusion so that it could be applied to other suppliers in future.

Reached for a response to the recommendations, a government spokesperson told us: “The security and resilience of the UK’s telecoms networks is of paramount importance. We have robust procedures in place to manage risks to national security and are committed to the highest possible security standards.”

The spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport added: “The Telecoms Supply Chain Review will be announced in due course. We have been clear throughout the process that all network operators will need to comply with the Government’s decision.”

In recent years the US administration has been putting pressure on allies around the world to entirely exclude Huawei from 5G networks — claiming the Chinese company poses a national security risk.

Australia announced it was banning Huawei and another Chinese vendor ZTE from providing kit for its 5G networks last year. Though in Europe there has not been a rush to follow the US lead and slam the door on Chinese tech giants.

In April leaked information from a UK Cabinet meeting suggested the government had settled on a policy of granting Huawei access as a supplier for some non-core parts of domestic 5G networks, while requiring they be excluded from supplying components for use in network cores.

On this somewhat fuzzy issue of delineating core vs non-core elements of 5G networks, the committee writes that it “heard unanimously and clearly” from witnesses that there will still be a distinction between the two in the next-gen networks.

It also cites testimony by the technical director of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Dr Ian Levy, who told it “geography matters in 5G”, and pointed out Australia and the UK have very different “laydowns” — meaning “we may have exactly the same technical understanding, but come to very different conclusions”.

In a response statement to the committee’s letter, Huawei SVP Victor Zhang welcomed the committee’s “key conclusion” before going on to take a thinly veiled swiped at the US — writing: “We are reassured that the UK, unlike others, is taking an evidence based approach to network security. Huawei complies with the laws and regulations in all the markets where we operate.”

The committee’s assessment is not all comfortable reading for Huawei, though, with the letter also flagging the damning conclusions of the most recent Huawei Oversight Board report which found “serious and systematic defects” in its software engineering and cyber security competence — and urging the government to monitor Huawei’s response to the raised security concerns, and to “be prepared to act to restrict the use of Huawei equipment if progress is unsatisfactory”.

Huawei has previously pledged to spend $2BN addressing security shortcomings related to its UK business — a figure it was forced to qualify as an “initial budget” after that same Oversight Board report.

“It is clear that Huawei must improve the standard of its cybersecurity,” the committee warns.

It also suggests the government consults on whether telecoms regulator Ofcom needs stronger powers to be able to force network suppliers to clean up their security act, writing that: “While it is reassuring to hear that network operators share this point of view and are ready to use commercial pressure to encourage this, there is currently limited regulatory power to enforce this.”

Another committee recommendation is for the NCSC to be consulted on whether similar security evaluation mechanisms should be established for other 5G vendors — such as Ericsson and Nokia: Two European based kit vendors which, unlike Huawei, are expected to be supplying core 5G.

“It is worth noting that an assurance system comparable to the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre does not exist for other vendors. The shortcomings in Huawei’s cyber security reported by the Centre cannot therefore be directly compared to the cyber security of other vendors,” it notes.

On the issue of 5G security generally the committee dubs this “critical”, adding that “all steps must be taken to ensure that the risks are as low as reasonably possible”.

Where “essential services” that make use of 5G networks are concerned, the committee says witnesses were clear such services must be able to continue to operate safely even if the network connection is disrupted. Government must ensure measures are put in place to safeguard operation in the event of cyber attacks, floods, power cuts and other comparable events, it adds. 

While the committee concludes there is no technical reason to limit Huawei’s access to UK 5G, the letter does make a point of highlighting other considerations, most notably human rights abuses, emphasizing its conclusion does not factor them in at all — and pointing out: “There may well be geopolitical or ethical grounds… to enact a ban on Huawei’s equipment”.

It adds that Huawei’s global cyber security and privacy officer, John Suffolk, confirmed that a third party had supplied Huawei services to Xinjiang’s Public Security Bureau, despite Huawei forbidding its own employees from misusing IT and comms tech to carry out surveillance of users.

The committee suggests Huawei technology may therefore be being used to “permit the appalling treatment of Muslims in Western China”.

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/15/no-technical-reason-to-exclude-huawei-as-5g-supplier-says-uk-committee/

06.14.19 Credit Cards

Cuba Fast Facts

(CNN)Here’s some background information about Cuba, a communist country located in the Caribbean Sea, approximately 90 miles south of Florida.

Area: 110,860 sq km (slightly smaller than Pennsylvania)
Population: 11,116,396 (July 2018 est.)
    Median age: 41.8 years
    Capital: Havana
    Ethnic Groups: white 64.1%, mixed 26.6%, black 9.3% (2012 est.)
    GDP (purchasing power parity): $137 billion (2017 est.)
    GDP per capita: $12,300 (2016 est.)
    Unemployment: 2.6% (2017 est., according to official figures. Unofficial estimate is double that number.)
    Other Facts:
    Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba was receiving subsidies worth $4 billion-$6 billion a year.
    The United States pays Cuba approximately $4,085 a year to lease the 45 square miles that the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station occupies. Cuba has not accepted the payment since 1959.
    Timeline:
    1492 – Explorer Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Cuba and claims it for Spain. Spain controls the island until 1898, making it a hub for the slave trade and the export of sugar and coffee.
    1898 – The United States assists Cubans in winning independence from Spain during the Spanish-American War. The Treaty of Paris gives the US temporary control of Cuba.
    1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.
    1903 – The new Republic of Cuba leases 45 square miles of land in Guantánamo Bay to the United States for construction of a naval station. Building on the naval station begins that same year.
    1952 – Former President Fulgencio Batista stages a coup with the support of the army, and assumes power.
    July 26, 1953 – Fidel Castro and approximately 150 others attack the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Batista regime.
    October 16, 1953 – Castro is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
    May 15, 1955 – Castro and his brother, Raul, are released as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners.
    December 2, 1956 – Eighty-two exiles land in Cuba, on a yacht named Granma. Most are killed immediately. The survivors, including the Castros, flee to the Sierra Maestra Mountains. During 1957-1958, they wage a guerrilla campaign from this base, which includes skirmishes with government troops and burning sugar crops.
    January 1, 1959 – Batista is overthrown by Castro’s forces.
    1960 – Cuba nationalizes approximately $1 billion of US-owned property on the island. In response, the United States places a trade embargo on Cuba.
    January 1961 – The United States and Cuba end diplomatic relations.
    April 1961 – The United States backs Cuban exiles in an unsuccessful attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
    October 1962 – The United States discovers that the Soviet Union is building missile installations in Cuba. The standoff ends with the Soviet Union withdrawing the missiles and the United States promising not to invade Cuba.
    1977 – The US Interests Section in Havana is opened.
    April-September 1980 – Fidel Castro allows anyone who wants to leave Cuba to freely depart from the port of Mariel. Approximately 124,000 Cuban migrants enter the United States.
    October 1983 – US troops invade the Caribbean island of Grenada, after a group of military officers aligned with Cuba stage a coup.
    1994 – The United States and Cuba sign an agreement designed to halt the flow of illegal aliens from Cuba to the US.
    1996 – US President Bill Clinton signs the Helms-Burton Act into law, tightening sanctions against Cuba.
    January 1998 – Pope John Paul II visits Cuba.
    September 1998 – Ten people are arrested in Florida and charged with spying for the Cuban government. The criminal complaint alleges the eight men and two women tried to infiltrate Cuban exile groups and US military installations. Five of the defendants are later identified as Cuban intelligence officers Ruben Campa (aka Fernando Gonzalez), Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Luis Medina (aka Ramon Labanino) and Antonio Guerrero.
    1999 – Clinton eases travel restrictions to Cuba.
    November 1999 – Five-year-old Elian Gonzalez is found in the water between Cuba and Florida, the only survivor of a group attempting to reach the United States by boat. A long custody battle between Gonzalez’ father in Cuba and relatives in Florida strains relations between Cuba and the United States. The standoff ends with US federal agents forcibly removing the boy from his great-uncle’s home. Gonzalez and his father return to Cuba in June 2000.
    June 9, 2001- The five Cuban agents are convicted of spying against the United States. Additionally, Gerardo Hernandez is convicted of contributing to the deaths of four members of the anti-Castro group Brothers to the Rescue, shot down by Cuban fighter jets in 1996.
    2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter visits Cuba, the first former or sitting president to visit since 1928.
    August 2005 – The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturns the spying convictions of the Cuban Five. The ruling is reversed in August 2006.
    July 31, 2006 – A statement read on Cuban TV announces that Fidel Castro is undergoing intestinal surgery and has provisionally handed over power to his younger brother, Raul.
    February 19, 2008 – Due to ailing health, Fidel Castro announces his resignation as president in a letter published in the middle of the night in the online version of Cuba’s state-run newspaper, Granma.
    February 24, 2008 – Raul Castro is chosen by Cuba’s National Assembly to be the country’s new president.
    December 2009 – American Alan Gross is jailed while working as a subcontractor on a US Agency for International Development project aimed at spreading democracy. His actions are deemed illegal by Cuban authorities. He is accused of trying to set up illegal internet connections on the island. Gross says he was trying to help connect the Jewish community to the internet and was not a threat to the government.
    October 2011 – A member of the Cuban Five, Rene Gonzalez, is released on probation after serving 13 years in prison.
    February 24, 2013 – Raul Castro is re-elected to a second five-year term. Later during a nationally televised speech, Castro announces that he will step down from power in 2018 when his term is over.
    February 2014 – ACuban Five member Ruben Campa (aka Fernando Gonzalez) is released from prison after serving more than 15 years.
    December 17, 2014 – Cuba releases American contractor Alan Gross as a “humanitarian” gesture after five years in prison. As part of a deal between the United States and Cuba, the United States releases three Cuban intelligence agents convicted of espionage in 2001; in return, Cuba frees an unidentified US intelligence source who has been jailed in Cuba for more than 20 years.
    December 17, 2014 – US President Barack Obama announces plans to immediately begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations, and that the US will re-open an embassy in Havana. The administration will also allow some travel and trade that had been banned under a decades-long embargo instated during the Kennedy administration.
    January 12, 2015 – Cuba has released a total of 53 political prisoners as part of its rapprochement deal with the United States, according to a US official.
    January 15, 2015 – The Obama Administration announces details of the softened travel regulations: Cuban Americans visiting family, US officials on government trips, journalists on assignment and regular citizens visiting for educational, cultural, or religious reasons will no longer need permission first. Americans will also be able to use credit cards, a prior restriction.
    January 22, 2015 – During a historic round of diplomatic talks between the United States and Cuba, the Cuban delegation expresses “serious concerns” about the United States and human rights, citing detentions in Guantanamo Bay, “police abuse” in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York, and racial and gender inequalities.
    January 26, 2015 – Fidel Castro writes that although he “doesn’t trust US policies and have not exchanged a word with them, this does not mean however that I would oppose a peaceful solution to conflicts or threats of war.”
    April 11, 2015 – Ending a decades-long standstill in US-Cuba relations, President Raul Castro meets for an hour during the Summit of the Americas with Obama, the first time the two nations’ top leaders have sat down for substantive talks in more than 50 years.
    April 14, 2015 – Obama recommends that Cuba be removed from the US government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.
    May 29, 2015 – The United States officially removes Cuba from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism, setting the two nations up for a full renewal of diplomatic ties.
    July 1, 2015 – Obama announces that the United States is restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba and that the American embassy in Havana will open during the late summer, with a visit from Secretary of State John Kerry.
    July 20, 2015 – Cuba and the United States officially re-establish diplomatic relations after 54 years.
    August 14, 2015 – The US Embassy officially re-opens in Havana.
    December 17, 2015 – The US State Department announces that the United States and Cuba have agreed to resume commercial air travel between the two countries for the first time in more than half a century. The Federal Aviation Administration must ensure certain safety regulations are in place before flights can resume, according to a State Department official.
    December 29, 2015 – Five Central American countries and Mexico reach an agreement that will help about 8,000 stranded Cuban immigrants make their way to the United States. Since the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, and the loosened requirements for travel outside of Cuba, the number of individuals trying to migrate to the United States has spiked.
    January 12, 2016 – The first group of Cuban migrants leaves Costa Rica for El Salvador on their way to Mexico. Once in Mexico, the migrants are on their own to attempt passage to the United States.
    February 18, 2016 – Obama announces on Twitter that he will visit Cuba in March, becoming the first sitting US president to visit Cuba in 88 years.
    March 15, 2016 – The US Treasury Department announces a further loosening of restrictions, which includes allowing US travelers to engage in individual educational tours of Cuba. Effective on March 16, Cuba and the United States will resume postal service, nearly five decades after direct mail service was interrupted.
    March 20, 2016 – Obama arrives in Cuba, beginning a historic two-day visit to the island that includes meetings with Raul Castro and anti-government dissidents.
    May 1, 2016 – For the first time in decades, a US cruise ship sets sail for Cuba as salsa music plays and protesters picket nearby.
    June 10, 2016 – The Department of Transportation approves American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines and Sun Country Airlines to offer flights between the United States and Cuba.
    August 31, 2016 – The first direct US commercial flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Cuba touches down in Santa Clara. JetBlue Flight 387 is the first in more than 50 years to carry passengers to the island since Obama’s announcement to reengage with Cuba.
    November 30, 2016 – The ashes of former leader Fidel Castro are carried from the capital, Havana, to Santiago, the birthplace of his revolution. It is the start of a journey that reverses the route Castro took across the island after seizing power in 1959.
    January 12, 2017 – Obama announces he is ending the longstanding “wet foot, dry foot” policy that allows Cubans who arrive in the United States without a visa to become permanent residents.
    September 29, 2017 – The US State Department orders families and nonessential personnel out of Cuba after a review of US diplomats’ safety following a series of sonic attacks that began in November 2016.
    November 8, 2017 – The Treasury Department announces new sanctions and travel restrictions on Cuba to take effect November 9.
    March 19, 2018 – Miguel Díaz-Canel is officially named as the new leader of Cuba, one day after a secret vote in the country’s National Assembly. Díaz-Canel, 57, was selected by a vote of 603-1 as the unopposed candidate to replace Raul Castro. This is the first time in nearly six decades that Cuba is being led by a man not named Castro.
    July 23, 2018 – Cuba’s National Assembly endorses a draft of a new constitution, according to Granma, the official newspaper of Cuba’s Communist Party. Changes include allowing a path to the legalization of same-sex marriage. The draft must pass through a popular vote to become law.
      February 24, 2019 – Cubans vote in favor of approving a new constitution. The new document replaces the 1976 Soviet-era charter enacted under. It protects private property and foreign investment, and for the first time places two five-year terms on the office of the presidency. However, following a backlash by conservative religious groups, the government backed off from language that would have legalized same-sex marriage in the constitution.
      June 4, 2019 – The US announces major new restrictions on US citizens traveling to Cuba, blocking the most common way Americans are able to visit the island — through organized tour groups that license US citizens to travel automatically — and banning US cruise ships from stopping in the country.

      Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/14/world/americas/cuba-fast-facts/index.html

      04.24.19 telecommunications

      UK gives Huawei an amber light to supply 5G

      The U.K. government will allow Huawei to be a supplier for some non-core parts of the country’s 5G networks, despite concerns that the involvement of the Chinese telecoms vendor could pose a risk to national security. But it will be excluded from core parts of the networks, according to reports in national press.

      The news of prime minister Theresa May’s decision made during a meeting of the National Security Council yesterday was reported earlier by The Telegraph. The newspaper said multiple ministers raised concerns about her approach — including the Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Defence Secretary, International Trade Secretary and International Development Secretary.

      The FT reports that heavy constraints on Huawei’s involvement in U.K. 5G networks reflect the level of concern raised by ministers.

      May’s decision to give an amber light to Huawei’s involvement in building next-gen 5G networks comes a month after a damning report by a U.K. oversight body set up to evaluate the Chinese company’s approach to security.

      The fifth annual report by the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre Oversight Board blasted “serious and systematic defects” in its software engineering and cyber security competence.

      Though the oversight board stopped short of calling for an outright ban — despite saying it could provide “only limited assurance that all risks to U.K. national security from Huawei’s involvement in the U.K.’s critical networks can be sufficiently mitigated long-term.”

      But speaking at a cybersecurity conference in Brussels in February, Ciaran Martin, the CEO of the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), expressed confidence U.K. authorities can mitigate any risk posed by Huawei.

      The NCSC is part of the domestic GCHQ signals intelligence agency.

      Dr. Lukasz Olejnik, an independent cybersecurity advisor and research associate at the Center for Technology and Global Affairs at Oxford University, told TechCrunch he’s not surprised by the government’s decision to work with Huawei.

      “It’s a message that was long-expected,” he said. “U.K. officials have been carefully sending signals in the previous months. In a sense, this makes us closer to the end of the 5G drama.”

      “With proper management most risk can be mitigated. It all depends on the strategic planning,” he added.

      “I believe the level of [security] responsibility at telecoms will remain similar to today’s. The main message expected by telecoms is clarity to enable them to move on with infrastructure.”

      The heaviest international pressure to exclude the Chinese vendor from next-gen 5G networks has been coming from the U.S., where President Trump has been leaning on key intelligence-sharing allies to act on espionage fears and shut out Huawei — with some success.

      Last year Australia and New Zealand both announced bans on Chinese kit vendors citing national security fears.

      But in Europe governments appear to be leaning in another direction: toward managing and mitigating potential risks rather than shutting the door completely.

      The European Commission has also eschewed pushing for a pan-EU ban — instead issuing recommendations encouraging member states to step up individual and collective attention on network security to mitigate potential risks.

      It has warned too — and conversely — of the risk of fragmentation to its flagship “digital single market” project if member state governments decide to slam doors on their own. So, at the pan-EU level, security considerations are very clearly being weighed against strategic commercial imperatives and technology priorities.

      Equally, individual European governments appear to have little appetite to throw a spanner in the 5G works, given the risk of being left lagging as cellular connectivity evolves and transforms — an upgrade that’s expected to fuel and underpin developments in artificial intelligence and big data analysis, among other myriad and much-hyped benefits.

      In the U.K.’s case, national security concerns have been repeatedly brandished as justification for driving through domestic surveillance legislation so draconian that parts of it have later been unpicked by both U.K. and EU courts. Even if the same security concerns are here, where 5G networks are concerned, being deemed “manageable” — rather than grounds for a similarly draconian approach to technology procurement.

      It’s not clear at this stage how extensively Huawei will be involved in supplying and building U.K. 5G networks.

      The NCSC sent us the following statement in response to questions:

      National Security Council discussions are confidential. Decisions from those meetings are made and announced at the appropriate time through the established processes.

      The security and resilience of the UK’s telecoms networks is of paramount importance.

      As part of our plans to provide world class digital connectivity, including 5G, we have conducted an evidence based review of the supply chain to ensure a diverse and secure supply base, now and into the future. This is a thorough review into a complex area and will report with its conclusions in due course.

      “How ‘non-core’ will be defined is anyone’s guess but it would have to be clearly defined and publicly communicated,” Olejnik also told us. “I would assume this refers to government and military networks, but what about safety communication or industrial systems, such as that of power plants or railroad? That’s why we should expect more clarity.”

      Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/24/uk-gives-huawei-an-amber-light-to-supply-5g/

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