Posted on 02/14/2018 9:04:20 AM PST by Swordmaker
Six intelligence officials, including the heads of the CIA, FBI, and NSA, have told the Senate Intelligence Committee that they would not recommend that U.S. citizens use smartphones from the Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, reports CNBC. As FBI director Chris Wray told the committee:
Were deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks. That provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure. It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.
In response to the intelligence officials warnings, a spokesperson for Huawei said:
Huawei is aware of a range of U.S. government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huaweis business in the U.S. market. Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities.
Huawei has been trying to enter the U.S. market as of late. One failed attempt saw a partnership with AT&T later called off.
It's not the software YOU can flash onto the Huawei phone, it's what's already in the HARDWARE you can't touch and that you know-nothing about that's important. Apple iPhones have a built in processor and hardware section the data processor cannot touch or even see which handles encryption and user authentication. It's completely hardware walled off from the ability of the data processor, yet it can access the and hand off data to the data processor after it has deciphered it.
You have no clue what may be included in the ZTE and Huawei hardware that can see your data and activity. The US intelligence agencies know better than you that these devices are not to be trusted and are saying so, yet they have certified other Android phones as OK for government use. Just not these made by a company that is apparently completely controlled by the Chinese Government.
Apple does not have access to the iPhones after the user puts in their user ID and password. Apple does not have the password, only the user has it. . . and the end to end encryption is 256 bit AES standard, higher than most of our government and financial institutions use. To open such an encryption REQUIRES that password, which is not even stored on the device, much less sent to Apple.
That’s fine, but Apple isn’t really the manufacturer now are they? I understood that they were manufactured in China.
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