Nothing can fully protect a country from secret malfeasance involving the company it hires to provide and maintain its 5th generation wireless system (5G). But certain steps can lessen the risk. One is to learn how secure the firm’s technology is; another is to estimate the chance that the laws and institutions in the firm’s home country will prevent the government there from accessing the firm’s data and algorithms without the user country’s permission.
By Donald K. Emmerson*
Trust but verify.
That mantra from nuclear-weapons negotiation discourse during the Cold
War is newly relevant today. Versions of the advice are circulating
among governments in Southeast Asia and elsewhere as they weigh the
security risks of partnering with this or that company to install the
fifth-generation telecommunications technology known as 5G.
It is tempting to believe that a technical solution to the problem of
unwanted risk exists — a clever digital tweak that will fully and
permanently protect a 5G network’s users. It does not. The best one can
hope for is a “good enough” balancing of faith and proof that is —
arguably, not assuredly — reassuring and realistic. Characteristics…
