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Huawei 5G kit must be removed from UK by 2027

(www.bbc.com)
293 points doener | 2 comments | 14 Jul 20 12:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.613s | source
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rich_sasha ◴[14 Jul 20 12:42 UTC] No.23831166[source]▶
If this is just Realpolitik/hardware independence, fine, but security..?

Any worthwhile Internet traffic should be encrypted in 2020, and if it isn’t, Huawei probably isn’t the most immediate concern.

And if it is encrypted, does it really matter who is listening?

Comments welcome, I know zilch about telecoms hardware.

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1. abc-xyz ◴[14 Jul 20 13:01 UTC] No.23831380[source]▶
You probably wouldn’t see a browser as a security risk either. In a recent example, all the big Chinese browsers blocked or rewrote the content on GitHub’s 996 repo. Imagine if Chinese browsers became mainstream, then they could rewrite Wikipedia articles, insert their own links/propaganda in google results, Facebook feeds, change download links to include a version bundled with spyware, etc. They already demonstrated that they’re willing to do it with the GitHub repo.
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2. someperson ◴[14 Jul 20 13:18 UTC] No.23831562[source]▶
It's worth noting that Qihoo 360 owns the Opera Web Browser, which incidentally offers a Free VPN to protect your privacy. The Qihoo 360 Browser, Tencent QQ Browser and Xiaomi smartphone's native browser all reportedly blocks the GitHub "996.icu" repository [1]. It seems likely such client-side censorship also reports the attempted access to the Chinese government authorities for further investigation.

Other than the risks of using Opera (and other software like AirDroid, TikTok, WeChat etc), the main way I currently see users outside China being affected by similar issues is if they use Chinese Android devices, including grocery store smartphones, or those popular HDMI android dongles.

China's export of technological-enabled totalitarianism and surveillance states (especially to developing countries) is accelerating.

[1] https://www.scmp.com/abacus/culture/article/3029260/chinese-...