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 by Staff Writers Paris (AFP) Jan 22, 2020
The United States pressed France on Wednesday to take "strong security measures" against potential breaches from 5G services provided by Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, saying failure to do so could imperil intelligence exchanges. Concerns about Huawei's 5G rollout topped the agenda of a third US-France cybersecurity meeting, Washington's top cyber diplomat Robert Strayer told reporters in Paris. The United States did not ask France for a Huawei ban, he said, but for strong protections against potential "malicious intrusions" from software and firmware updates of any systems provided by the company. If France failed to take adequate steps, said Strayer, the United States "will have to reassess how we conduct operations" that require sensitive information-sharing including joint military exercises and counter-terrorism operations. "The real risk that we see is that if there are unsecure 5G networks coming from untrusted vendors, that that could compromise the data that we want to share with those partners" in NATO, including France and Germany, he said. 5G, or fifth generation, is the latest, high-speed generation of cellular mobile communications. There has been intense debate in Europe about whether or not to exclude Huawei from developing 5G mobile networks. Critics, led by Washington, say Huawei is too close to Beijing and its equipment could be used as a tool for spying -- a contention the company strongly rejects. US President Donald Trump has already ordered American firms to cease doing business with market leader Huawei, and has urged allies to follow suit. - 'Authoritarian governments' - Germany has so far resisted pressure to ban Huawei. France has said it will not ban Huawei, but the ANSSI regulator will have a strong say in who gets the final authorisation. "We know that 5G will enable the smart grids, so supplying electricity to homes and businesses, enable telemedicine as well as smart transportation networks, so all of those could be disrupted during a point of potential conflict," said Strayer. "We're not asking for a particular ban, we're saying: 'adopt the right kind of security measures that will protect your public and your longer-term economic interests against companies like Huawei that are under the control of authoritarian governments." He said telecoms companies Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung "stand ready" to provide 5G technology, so refusing Huawei should not lead to delays. And though it was not part of the United States' diplomatic campaign, "it would be a good idea, we think, for countries to also eliminate Huawei in other parts of their earlier generations of network". On one estimate, it would cost $3.5 billion to replace all Huawei equipment in Europe, said Strayer. "Nobody should want to be in the position of offering... the Chinese government access to all their secrets." Asked if there was proof that Huawei was stealing data for the Chinese government, deputy assistant attorney general Adam Hickey of the US justice department's National Security Division said: "If you ask me for a smoking gun and you wait for it, you might end up getting shot."
Canada lawyers argue for Huawei exec's extradition to US The US alleges Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of tech giant Huawei, lied to the bank HSBC about Huawei's relationship with its Iran-based affiliate Skycom, putting the bank at risk of violating US sanctions against Tehran. Meng has denied the allegations. "Fraud is at the heart of this case," Crown counsel Robert Frater told the court. "Lying to a bank to obtain financial services is fraud," he said, disputing defense claims that the US was effectively, through its extradition treaty, seeking to get Canada to enforce US banking sanctions against Iran that Canada and other allies repudiated. Were Canada to agree to Meng's extradition, defense lawyer Eric Gottardi said earlier this week, "we would be allowing a foreign state to criminalize conduct in Canada" that is not illegal in this country. Frater said the sanctions merely provide context "to better understand why HSBC's economic interests were at risk." Defense arguments, he said, "only serve to obscure the essence" of Meng's actions. In order to win extradition, lawyers for Canada's attorney general on behalf of the US Justice Department must demonstrate that the US accusations against Meng would be considered a crime in Canada if they'd occurred here. This is a key test referred to as double criminality. Many of the arguments for and against Meng's extradition so far have relied on a precedent case involving arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber, who was sent to Germany in 2009. He was prosecuted for his role in a kickbacks scheme in the sale of planes and tanks to Canada, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. But "there is no case exactly like this one," Frater commented. - Bank 'entitled to honesty' - In court filings, the Crown said Meng's actions amounted to "a fraud on a bank," saying she made "several misrepresentations to a bank to secure financial services." They assert that Huawei controlled the operations of Skycom in Iran; that its staff used Huawei email accounts and security badges; and its bank accounts were controlled by Huawei. Meng, however, told HSBC executives in a presentation in Hong Kong in 2013 that Huawei no longer owned Skycom and that she had resigned from that company's board. From 2010 to 2014, meanwhile, HSBC and its American subsidiary cleared more than US$100 million worth of transactions related to Skycom through the US. "Simply put, there is evidence she deceived HSBC in order to induce it to continue to provide banking services to Huawei," the Crown said in court documents. During this period, HSBC was Huawei's most important international bank with dealings in over 40 countries. It coordinated a USD$1.5 billion syndicated loan to Huawei, contributing US$150 million of its own funds. Had HSBC known of Huawei's alleged skirting of US sanctions against Iran it would have reassessed its ties to Huawei, Frater said. "The bank has to ask if doing this business is going to lose them other business," he said. "The bank is entitled to honesty in being able to assess whether it is going to be at risk." The Crown noted that HSBC forfeited US$1 billion and paid US$665 million in fines for past sanctions violations by conducting transactions with Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Myanmar. Violating its deal with US prosecutors allowing it to avoid a trial in that case "could have subjected HSBC to criminal charges relating to the previous conduct," it said in court filings. "Continuing a relationship with Huawei/Skycom also exposed HSBC to new civil and criminal sanctions." Meng's arrest during a stopover of a Hong Kong-to-Mexico flight in December 2018 caused a major rift in Canada's relations with Beijing, which followed up by detaining two Canadians and restricting Canadian agricultural imports. The arrests on espionage suspicions of former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been widely interpreted as retribution by Beijing aimed at pressuring Canada to free Meng. While Meng is out on bail, the two Canadians remain in China's opaque penal system. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected domestic calls to free Meng in a "prisoner swap" for the pair in order to normalize relations with China.
Trump says Apple 'has to help' on police access to encrypted phones Davos, Switzerland (AFP) Jan 22, 2020 President Donald Trump weighed in Wednesday on Apple's dispute with the US government over giving law enforcement access to encrypted iPhones, saying the company "has to help." "I understand both sides of the argument," Trump told CNBC in an interview from the Davos economic forum. But "we should start finding some of the bad people out there that we can do with Apple. I think it's very important," he said. Trump said Apple "have the keys to so many criminals and criminal minds." Apple a ... read more
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