Huawei accuses the United States of cyberattacks

The Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei released a statement in early September in which it accuses the United States of using all the levers available to harm it. Including computer attacks.

Tensions between the United States and China have reached a new level on September 2. And this time it was through Huawei that the verbal assault was launched. So far moderate in its public expression, so as not to alienate more Washington and facilitate a possible end of crisis between the two countries, the Chinese equipment maker has dropped its blows.

" In recent months, the US government (…) has used all the tools at its disposal – including judicial and administrative powers, as well as a host of other unscrupulous means – to disrupt Huawei's normal business activities and of its partners The company writes on its website. And among the means employed would be cyberattacks.

Nevertheless, no evidence is advanced by Huawei to support this accusation. It is simply asserted that the United States infiltrated the company's intranet and internal information systems for unspecified purposes, but which is likely to be intelligence-based if these computer attacks are proven. Their number is not mentioned either.

A transaction in 2009

Unchallengeable in the state, the accusation of Huawei remains nonetheless plausible. Thanks to the confidential documents retrieved by Edward Snowden revealing the programs put in place by the NSA and certain other allied intelligence agencies to conduct their electronic surveillance mission, and published by the press from 2013, it has been established that aimed at Huawei had already occurred.

According to a 2014 Spiegel article, the links between Huawei and the Chinese agencies were inspected in 2009 by the NSA. According to the report, US spies had access to many sensitive data from the company, but could not determine with certainty whether Huawei was transmitting much information to Beijing, under a secret agreement.

A spokesman for the firm took advantage of the case to defend his independence: " If it's true, it's ironic: they do exactly what they've always accused the Chinese of doing, through us ". The NSA, however, did not leave empty-handed: according to the article, it had then grabbed useful information to refine its monitoring of valuable targets.