Canadian Security Experts Warn Against Ties with China’s Huawei Technologies

Security experts in Canada are urging the government to cut ties with Huawei Technologies after US Congress proposed a legislative bill banning government agencies from working with the Chinese vendor.

“I have a pretty good idea of how signal-intelligence agencies work and the rules under which they work,” said Ward Elcock, former director of Canada’s security agency CSIS in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

Huawei is essentially owned by the Chinese government and therefore it could easily be used as a vehicle for espionage, reports suggest.

Due to today’s global interconnectivity, the act of gaining access to any security system could reportedly provide access to many others. As a NATO country, Canada could be a desirable target due to its connection to other NATO systems.

Those concerns have long been expressed by top officials from the CIA, NSA, and other intelligence agencies.

Huawei has been operating in Canada since 2008 and has employed more than 700 people. Aside from its ties with several Canadian communications providers, including Bell, Telus, and Wind Mobile, Huawei is a partner for a few Canadian universities and telecom gear vendors.

However, the calls for banning Huawei have been growing ever louder since AT&T pulled out of a deal it had signed with the Chinese corporation. Even the American multinational consumer electronics firm Best Buy has recently announced that it would no longer sell Huawei devices in either the US or Canada.