US finds Huawei has backdoor access to mobile networks globally, report says

Gov: We demand you put in “wire tapping” features for law enforcement.

Vendor: Fine!

Gov: OMFG <Vendor> has a backdoor which can be used to wire tap the network...

It’s almost as if demanding these back doors from vendors is a bad idea. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

> Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not your computer anymore

> Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore

From: https://security.meta.stackexchange.com/a/988

If the firmware/software on these devices isn't open sourced and can be remotely updated/flashed, then of course the manufacturer can access every bit of data the device handles.

It's important that we audit all telecom equipment carefully before deploying it, because they deal with lots of very sensitive data.

What if Huawei was a US based company, and had allowed government to access backdoor to mobile networks globally, would US react the same?

Alternately you can replace US with EU and Huawei with NSA/FBI and think of the scenario and reaction/

I think, It should be a norm to opensource the equipment firmware Source and update mechanism so that they can be audited for the better of all. So even NSA/FBI/CHINA/ETC have hard time making backdoor.