Government risking national security by putting profit over safety in telecoms industry, say MPs

Britain is in danger of exposure to sabotage and espionage due to the government putting profit before safety in the telecommunication structure, according to a Commons Committee.

While the belated decision to strip out Chinese company Huawei from the 5G network over the next seven years went some way towards averting a crisis with closest international allies, serious problems remain with security, MPs said.

The government, the Committee maintained, is allowing practices in the industry that lead to inadequate security and make the UK vulnerable to hostile action by adversaries.

“The current situation has led to commercial concerns trumping those of national security, which is unacceptable. The government should not allow a situation where short-term commercial considerations are placed ahead of those for national security and defence,” says a Committee report.

Regulations meant to deal with the problem “lack teeth” and a failure to bring in new measures “would be a gross dereliction of duty”. 

The report continues: “A planned Telecoms Security Bill is required to bring regulations up to date and to allow the government to compel operators to act in the interests of security. The Committee found that the current regulatory situation for network security is outdated and unsatisfactory.”

The short-sighted approach of the government on the issue was exemplified by the admission of Huawei into the country’s 5G infrastructure in the first place. It was a decision, the Committee points out, that was at odds with those of the UK’s closest intelligence allies, and one taken without thinking through to the damaging consequences.

The UK was the only country in the Five Eyes group – which also consists of US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – to allow a 5G supplier into the system. The move was reversed five months later following sustained pressure from Washington and growing resistance among Tory MPs, as details emerged about China’s subterfuge during the beginning of the spread of coronavirus.

“Our inquiry found that there is clear evidence of collusion between Huawei and the Chinese state, which supports the decision to remove them from the UK’s networks”, says the Defence Committee in the report “The Security of 5G”.

The Committee stresses that there was an urgent need for the D-10 group of the world’s largest democracies to provide an alternative to Chinese manufacturers who have made a concerted effort to capture the market.

Tobias Ellwood, the Committee’s chairperson, said: “Protecting and preserving our nation’s security are amongst the principle responsibilities of government. The decision to embed a technology that compromises this would constitute a gross dereliction of these duties.

“We must not surrender our national security for the sake of short-term technological development.

“The west must urgently unite to advance a counterweight to China’s tech dominance. As every aspect of our lives becomes increasingly reliant on access to data movement we must develop a feasible, practical and cost-effective alternative to the cheap, high-tech solutions which can be preyed upon and which come stooped with conditions which ensnare a state into long-term allegiance to China.

“A new D10 alliance, that unites the world’s ten strongest democracies, would provide a viable alternative foundation to the technological might of authoritarian states ... Democracies the world over are waking up to the dangers of new technology from overseas that could inadvertently provide hostile states access to sensitive information through the backdoor.”

The issue of providing alternative technology to Beijing was raised at the recent meeting of the “Quadrilateral Alliance” – US, Japan, India and Australia – in Tokyo.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said in an interview with Japanese media: “I want to make sure the citizens of Japan don't have their data in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

“This is something every nation wants, whether it's the Clean Network or our pushback against [state-linked] enterprises like Huawei, which ... show up with a business proposition which is nothing more than truly a network of the Chinese state to undermine the freedom and sovereignty of the country in which they're operating.”