Cormac O'Keeffe: Huawei probe raises spectre of 5G security risk

FBI sting operation snared two Chinese nationals allegedly trying to gain insights into telecoms giant accused of racketeering

The US Department of Justice has accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets from several companies, including six US technology firms.

Revelations from the US that two Chinese nationals had been charged for attempting to interfere with a criminal investigation against telecoms giant Huawei has not gone unnoticed in European corridors of power, Ireland among them.

The two suspected spies, apprehended following an FBI sting operation, were allegedly trying to gain insights into the probe into whether Huawei conducted racketeering and conspired to steal trade secrets.

The US Department of Justice has accused Huawei of deliberately stealing trade secrets from several companies, including six US technology firms.

When the Irish Examiner asked IDA Ireland whether it had any concerns about Huawei’s operations here, it, not surprisingly, declined to enter the fray.

It said Huawei had been a client of IDA Ireland since 2004 and had bases in Cork, Dublin, and Athlone.

The telecoms giant’s investments in Ireland deepened earlier this month with announcements that it was putting €150m into its first European cloud hub in Dublin, with the promise of 200 jobs.

Eir – one of Ireland’s top three mobile phone providers – uses Huawei technology in its 5G services, but has said it does not use it in its core network. The other two providers, Three Ireland and Vodafone, say they are using Ericsson technology.

5G is the next generation of mobile phone technology and while the providers offer it to customers, take-up so far has been slow.

Huawei, which has its headquarters in Schenzhen, has also partnered with universities in Ireland.

The US and Australia have led bans on Huawei supplying 5G network technology, with the UK adopting a similar stance – banning its technology from critical parts of the networks – in November 2020.

The EU has been more circumspect and focusing on the issue of security in general terms and has not specified individual companies. The same approach has been adopted in Ireland.

The EU did publish a ‘5G Security Toolbox’ in January 2020, which identified technical and strategic risks. It outlined a process for assessing risks, profiling suppliers, and applying restrictions on those considered “high risk”, up to excluding them from supplying critical infrastructure.

The EU sees the 5G networks as providing the backbone for services deemed vital for the functioning of both the economy and society – including critical areas like energy, transport, banking, and health.

Risk assessment

In Ireland, the National Cyber Security Centre and the communications regulator, Comreg, conducted a national risk assessment which found that there are significant technical and strategic risks associated with 5G networks.

Now, the Government has acted on intentions it flagged last November and introduced amendments to the Communications Regulation Bill 2022.

These will give the minister the power to determine what parts of the network are “critical or sensitive” and ban technology provided by firms assessed as “high risk” from being used in those areas.

Whether this results in Huawei being affected in Ireland is not yet clear. But it is not a hypothetical scenario.

In June 2021, the courts in Sweden upheld a ban on using equipment from Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese manufacturer, for 5G networks in the country.

Last October, Huawei appealed that decision to the EU Court of Justice.

Central to Huawei’s case is how state bodies prove that a supplier is “high-risk”.

The court’s decision is eagerly awaited.