Late yesterday news filtered out that both Huawei and ZTE have been banned from Canadian 5G networks over national security concerns. And any telco that are using their gear needs to rip it out ASAP. This mirrors similar moves by the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia who along with Canada are known as the “Five Eyes” which is an alliance of these five countries to share intelligence. The difference is that Canada was late to this decision while the other four made this call years ago. Thus one has to wonder why it took Canada so long to make this move.
In my opinion, one factor had to be the Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor situation where those two Canadian citizens were essentially held hostage by the Chinese government in retaliation for the arrest of Meng Wanzhou who is the CFO of Huawei in Vancouver and at the request of the US government. That eventually got sorted when the US cut a deal with Wanzhou which allowed the two Michael’s to be released by China as that’s how “hostage diplomacy” works. But even then, that was over a year ago and they are only banning Huawei and ZTE now. So that can’t be the only reason. Though it’s not clear to me what other reasons exist.
Regardless of what reasons exist, here’s the thing that really bothers me about this rather late decision by the Canadian government to ban Huawei and ZTE. If you accept that both of these companies are arms of Chinese intelligence, which I happen to believe to some degree, then this inaction by the Canadian government has given both these companies an inside look at not only the telecommunications networks in Canada, but how Canadians use those networks. Not to mention that they could have been doing who knows what to gather whatever information that the Chinese government wanted them to gather. All while the Canadian government sat on its hands and did nothing. So even though they’re now banned, Huawei, ZTE, and the Chinese government still win. And that highlights how the Canadian government has failed miserably on this issue.
When it comes to national security, governments have to take it seriously. They have to make decisions that lean towards ensuring security and they have to make those decisions quickly. That didn’t happen here, and I have to wonder if it is going to cost Canada down the road. Because it’s pretty clear that the Canadian government dropped the ball here, and there needs to be some accountability on that front.
NSA, CISA and FBI Expose Chinese Backed Exploitation Of Network Providers And Devices
Posted in Commentary with tags China, Hacked, US on June 8, 2022 by itnerdThe NSA, CISA and FBI have released a Cybersecurity Advisory called “People’s Republic of China State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Exploit Network Providers and Devices“. This advisory centers around the fact that hackers aligned with China are using a variety of techniques to exploit publicly-known vulnerabilities in equipment, allowing them to establish a broad network of compromised infrastructure. The advisory also lists a number of mitigation strategies that organizations need to take to protect themselves.
Jason Middaugh who is the Chief Information Security Officer, MRK Technologies had this to say:
The latest Cybersecurity Advisory from the NSA, CISA, and FBI drives home the importance of good cybersecurity fundamentals such as keeping assets updated/patched, changing default credentials to strong passphrases, and requiring multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
Many companies make the mistake of focusing on implementing the latest and greatest high-tech hardware/software and overlook the basics like system hardening and asset lifecycle management.
It does not matter whether it is the PRC attempting to exploit the device or an international cybercrime syndicate, if you don’t do the basics well it is only a matter of time before an internet facing asset is compromised.
Clearly this advisory is required reading for all enterprises. Because at the end of the day all enterprises are at risk. And it doesn’t matter if it’s China, or a ransomware group. All enterprises need to reduce their attack surface as much as possible to ensure that they are as safe from attack as possible.
UPDATE: Chris Olson, CEO, The Media Trust had this to say:
“Zero-days and other vulnerabilities in networked devices are an overlooked national security threat, especially in the midst of mounting geopolitical tensions. Unfortunately, the problem is not isolated to IT infrastructure, but also extends to the software supply chain, popular apps and mainstream websites. Today, foreign adversaries are targeting American consumers and businesses through code, with no borders to prevent malicious activity. In addition to following the advice published in the joint cybersecurity advisory, organizations should regularly monitor their digital ecosystem for the presence of untrusted third parties and remove bad actors to protect their users.”
Leave a comment »