Telecoms companies that run foul of proposed new security legislation face fines of up to 10% of their annual turnover, or £100,000 a day, under a new law to be laid in Parliament that awards the government “unprecedented” powers to boost the security standards of the UK’s telecoms networks and force the removal of high-risk suppliers, such as Huawei.

If passed, the Telecommunications (Security) Bill will impose new duties on telecoms firms to increase the security of the networks they operate within the UK, and new responsibilities on Ofcom to monitor and assess the security of operators.

“We are investing billions to roll out 5G and gigabit broadband across the country, but the benefits can only be realised if we have full confidence in the security and resilience of our networks,” said digital minister Oliver Dowden.

“This groundbreaking bill will give the UK one of the toughest telecoms security regimes in the world and allow us to take the action necessary to protect our networks.”

The government said its bill will strengthen the cyber security framework for technology used in both 5G and full-fibre broadband networks, including the hardware and…

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“There were massive improprieties and fraud — including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, ‘glitches’ in the voting machines which changed … votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more,” Trump tweeted, though those claims are false. “Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated.”

Krebs, one of the few Trump appointees with nearly universal bipartisan support, spent years navigating his new agency through DHS’s leadership turmoil and the administration’s political controversies. At the same time, he built relationships with fellow officials and private security experts to reform and promote the government’s cyber mission.

After rising to become the United States’ de-facto cyber czar in 2018, he became a familiar presence at security conferences, where he discussed threats such as the ransomware epidemic and the risks of Chinese telecom companies such as Huawei. In an administration that constantly defied democratic norms, Krebs became the public face of the government’s election security efforts, highlighting the collaboration between national security officials and election supervisors.

But Krebs’…

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The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) has noted in its latest report that underlying defects continue to persist in Huawei’s software engineering and cyber security processes and the company has done little to remove the defects highlighted by the centre last year.

In late 2018, the National Cyber Security Centre announced that its Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC), which was set up to monitor equipment deployed by Huawei in the UK and to ensure transparency between Huawei, the government and operators, had flagged a range of security issues in the company’s hardware.

“The National Cyber Security Centre is committed to the security of UK networks, and we have a regular dialogue with Huawei about the criteria expected of their products. As was made clear in July’s HCSEC oversight board, the NCSC has concerns around a range of technical issues and has set out improvements the company must make,” said a government spokesperson.

In response, Ryan Ding, President of Huawei’s Carrier Business Group, told the Commons Science and Technology Committee in a letter that his company would invest up to £1.54 billion over the next five years to…

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Further significant technical issues have been identified in Huawei’s engineering processes, leading to new risks in the UK telecommunications networks. No material progress has been made by Huawei in the remediation of the issues reported last year. – UK Oversight Board, 2019 Annual Report

The press headlines about Huawei over the past couple years have focused on what the non-technical media find most titillating, the easiest to comprehend, the most sell-able angles: national security risks, espionage, racketeering, stolen American technology, secret deals with Iran and North Korea, etc. In short, they proffer a narrative of criminality and geopolitics. The image of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, showing up in court in Jimmy Choo silver stiletto heels and an ankle bracelet, makes for great copy. Rich, foreign, wicked, sexy. 

But these…

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