A meeting between Huawei executives and UK security officials has led to an agreement the Chinese vendor will change its practices.

Huawei will pen a formal letter to the National Cyber Security Centre which covers the agreement in detail. The letter will include what measures will be taken in order to alleviate concerns.

The meeting was set up to avoid a ban of the vendor’s telecoms equipment in the UK similar to the US and Australia. Countries including

Asian shares have plunged following the arrest of Huawei’s CFO in Canada for the alleged violation of US sanctions against Iran.

Those hoping the G20 summit would ease trade tensions between the US and China had them dashed by the news. Traders hoped the ceasefire announced by President Trump after meeting his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit would lead to more stability.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested by Canadian authorities in Vancouver and is currently facing extradition to the US. The...

Nokia’s latest Threat Intelligence Report warns the arrival of 5G will build even further on this year’s record number of IoT botnet attacks.

IoT botnets represented 78 percent of malware detection events in communication service provider networks in 2018, more than double the 2016 rate.

5G is expected to increase the pace of IoT deployments; providing a greater number of compromisable devices.

Kevin McNamee, Director of Nokia's Threat Intelligence Lab, said:

Mere days after the US petitioned its allies to ban the use of Huawei’s equipment over security concerns, New Zealand has blocked a telco from doing so.

The operator, Spark, posted a statement today claiming the Director-General of the Government Communications Security Bureau rejected its request to use Huawei’s 5G equipment.

In the statement, Spark wrote:

Recent years have seen the mobile landscape change beyond recognition. Traditional voice and messaging services continue to fight a losing battle against OTT service providers such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, and operators everywhere are preparing to meet the demands for the superfast, high bandwidth capabilities of 5G. Customers now expect a real time, frictionless mobile experience, and operators must deliver this, or lose out to their competitors....

The feud between the US and China continues to gather pace ahead of a tense G20 summit as the nation petitions its allies to ditch Chinese 5G equipment.

Officials have long held concerns that equipment from Chinese manufacturers could be used for spying. While the US is most vocal, other countries have voiced similar views and either banned equipment – such as Australia – or taken measures to mitigate the risks, such as the UK and Canada.

All four of the aforementioned countries are part of the...

Iran claims it has foiled several cyber attacks staged by Israel which included a new version of the infamous Stuxnet malware.

Stuxnet is thought to have been developed in a joint effort between Israeli and US intelligence agencies.

“Recently, we discovered a new generation of Stuxnet which consisted of several parts … and was trying to enter our systems,” the ISNA news agency reported Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran’s civil defense agency, as saying last week.

A New York Times

Chinese government officials are lobbying their Australian counterparts to reverse the ban of Huawei’s equipment in national 5G networks.

A ban of the equipment was implemented by ex-Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, who was ousted earlier this year. Chinese officials have praised his replacement, Scott Morrison, for a more “positive attitude” towards China.

Beijing is hoping to capitalise on this more positive attitude in order to get the ban on Chinese telecoms equipment reversed.

During...

Australia’s spy chief has offered some deeper insight on why some companies are banned from participating in the nation's 5G networks.

The crux of it is the long-standing concerns that some companies, particularly those originating from China, are controlled by their nation’s government. One company which has often faced (and denied) these allegations is Huawei.

Huawei has bore the brunt of the security concerns as China’s largest telecoms vendor. The narrative has been led by the US...

A potential diplomatic crisis is brewing as Belgian federal prosecutors blame Britain for hacking the nation’s largest telecoms operator.

Belgacom was first hacked back in the summer of 2012. The company’s security researchers noticed anomalies but it wasn’t until the following year they had an idea of the problem.

A malware which disguised itself as Microsoft software had infected Belgacom’s system and was stealing data. NSA documents released by Edward Snowden indicated...

Huawei has said it’s ready to dispel any 5G security fears in South Korea as it continues to woo operators around the world.

South Korean telcos are currently deciding which vendors will supply their 5G equipment. The nation’s largest, SK Telecom, has already ruled-out Huawei in favour of Samsung, Nokia, and Ericsson.

Unlike the US and Australia, the South Korean government has not banned the use of Huawei equipment. There are...

The UK government has disclosed a ‘reckless’ campaign of Russian cyber attacks targeting political institutions, businesses, media, and sport.

In findings by the National Cyber Security Centre, a number of international attacks have been linked to Russian intelligence agency GRU.

The attacks, it claims, have affected citizens in a large number of countries – including Russia – and cost national economies millions of pounds.

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

Canada says it has safeguards in place that means it doesn’t need to follow the US and Australia in banning Chinese telecoms firms like Huawei.

Telecoms networks represent some of a nation’s most critical infrastructure. With 5G, that reliance is set to increase even further due to use cases such as healthcare, driverless cars, and smart cities.

Many countries are therefore understandably wary about the role of foreign companies in their national telecoms infrastructure

The most notable is the US,...

India is said to be excluding Chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei from its 5G trials in favour of Ericsson, Cisco, Samsung, and Nokia.

The exclusion of the vendors has become a somewhat familiar story. Just last week, Telecoms reported South Korea’s largest operator became the latest to snub Huawei.

Speaking to ETTelecom, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan

The head of UK spy agency GCHQ has warned 5G will increase threats of digital terrorism due to its expected use in critical infrastructure.

Jeremy Fleming, Head of UK spy agency GCHQ, wrote in the Sunday Times to raise his concerns about the next generation of mobile networks.

5G is expected to expand beyond its current primary use for mobile broadband to connect...

The dramatic increase in internet-connected devices has created a significant attack surface for hackers and cybercriminals. Applications for the Internet of Things (IoT) are growing. As a result, the related challenges associated with IoT data security and privacy will increase with time.

Whether their motive is simply mischief, theft, or some other goal, the impact of IoT-related criminal activities can be far-reaching and very costly. Vendors of cybersecurity software and services will, therefore,...

Hutchison-owned Three has decided against its existing 3G/4G network partners in favour of Huawei for its future 5G rollout.

Three uses equipment from Nokia for its 3G network, and Samsung for 4G. The operator decided to once again switch things up for its 5G rollout over the belief Huawei’s technology is far more attractive.

Many rival operators around the world often choose to stick with the one vendor to ease the upgrade process and keep costs down. Ericsson is one vendor which has gone on record to...

According to Homeland Security officials, state-sponsored Russian hackers compromised US utility networks in a campaign affecting ‘hundreds’ of victims.

The Wall Street Journal cites officials from the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) claiming that hackers reached the point they ‘could have thrown switches’ to cause significant disruption.

Officials linked the...

An oversight board set up in the UK to monitor the use of Huawei’s equipment in critical telecoms infrastructure has identified ‘new risks’ to security.

While countries like the US and Australia have taken hardline stances against the use of Chinese telecoms equipment from the likes of Huawei in critical infrastructure, the UK has been more accommodating.

Chinese telecoms equipment...

In the evolving landscape of mobile networks, we are beginning to see new vulnerabilities open up through 3G and 4G networks, and it is more than likely that 5G will follow this same fate. Protecting only this Gi Interface is no longer enough for service provider security.

Until recently, the Gi-LAN connecting the EPC (Evolved Packet Core) to the internet was considered to be the most vulnerable part of the service provider network and was protected via Gi-Firewal and anti DDoS systems. The rest of the EPC...