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GCHQ official: Huawei's security 'is shoddy'

Published on: 29 Apr 2019

A senior cyber security official at GCHQ has said the engineering practices of Chinese technology giant Huawei are not up to scratch and suggested its equipment should be banned from sensitive areas of the UK.

Speaking to the BBC's Panorama programme, Dr Ian Levy said he thinks it would be a good idea to remove Huawei mobile network solutions from places such as Westminster where confidential information may be discussed.

He also said the company faces being banned from the "brains" of the UK's 5G mobile network.

"The security in Huawei is like nothing else - it's engineering like it's back in the year 2000. It's very, very shoddy and leads to cyber security issues that we then have to manage long term. It's just poor engineering," Dr Levy commented.

Last month, a security review backed by GCHQ said Huawei products contain a number of cyber-security defects, while the US has also warned that it will stop sharing its defence and intelligence data with Europe unless it boycotts using Huawei's 5G mobile network.