China concerns force Huawei to raise the bar on cyber security credentials

HONG KONG: Lack of trust in China and US trade "protectionism" has given telecoms company Huawei more business because it must work harder to assure that its networks are secure, the firm has said.
During a briefing attended by V3, head of international media affairs Scott Sykes, shown left, discussed PRISM and the firm's relationship with the rest of the world, saying security concerns were actually proving beneficial for the firm.
Sykes said: "Because of our heritage and because of where we're headquartered, we've been challenged. The lack of trust broadly is about China, it's not specifically about Huawei but we get painted by that brush sometimes, so we accept it and we know that the bar is higher for us.
"But it's an interesting phenomenon that we have very detailed conversations with customers about cyber security and cyber security assurance. We understand their business challenges, they understand all the lengths that we go to, to assure security. On the back of that we're getting more business; they've raised the bar for us. And they're impressed by how high we've raised it, we get a closer relationship, we're getting more business on the back of this."
Sykes pitted Huawei as leading the way in terms of security assurance, adding that he hoped it ensure other companies would meet a similar standard of openness. "No matter what the rules, they should apply to every company," he said.
Huawei, which began its expansion into international markets in 1997, and has had US presence since 2001, expects a net profit margin of seven to eight percent for 2013, compared with seven percent in 2012.
Sykes also criticised the US for its rejection of Huawei products over security concerns, saying that the nation's fear of China should not have affected its attitude towards particular firms and that the US's own networks are no better.
"It's short-sighted and myopic thinking to say that even if China is the problem, let's block Huawei and that'll take care of everything. Networks in the US are no more secure.
"What we take issue with is that when different rules and standards are applied to different companies based on where the headquarters is located. That's what we don't agree with. That's trade protectionism."
However, he praised the UK government's collaboration with the brand, and insisted that its work in the UK was open and secure. He told V3: "The UK government has been very progressive in terms of how it adopts technology. We've created this cyber security assurance centre in Banbury.
"Inside that centre UK security-cleared personnel can look inside the source code of our equipment, and by the way we do that at great risk to our company, we're sharing the source code of our equipment."
However, some issues have been raised with the way Huawei has run its testing centre in the UK, with calls for a review of the setup that sees Huawei staff vet their own products.