Frankline Sunday
Claims by President Trump that China's tech giant
could be spying for Beijing has raised data security questions
considering its vast footprint in Kenya's telecommunication sector.
President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order whose ripples
may reverberate beyond the US borders all the way to Kenya.
With one stroke of the pen, Trump declared a national emergency
giving US companies legal grounding to ban information and communication
technology suppliers perceived to be a security
threat.
The order came after months of push by the Trump Administration for
local firms and Western governments to rethink installing ICT
infrastructure made by China's tech giant Huawei.
“Foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting
vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and
services, which store and communicate vast amounts of sensitive
information, facilitate the digital economy, and support critical
infrastructure and vital emergency services, in order to commit
malicious cyber-enabled actions, including economic and industrial
espionage against the United States and its people,” reads the executive
order in part.
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Analysts
view this as an escalation of the US-China trade war that threatens to
have a domino effect on the global economy and hurt developing economies
such as Kenya the most.
Trump’s move came in the wake of warnings by US intelligence agencies
and investigative media reports that Huawei is intricately linked to the
Communist Party of China (CPC) and could be used as an agent of
State-sanctioned espionage.
One report by Bloomberg earlier this month claimed that British telecom
giant Vodafone Group found hidden ‘backdoors’ on equipment supplied and
installed by Huawei in one of its fixed-line networks in Italy.
A backdoor is a malicious computer programme used to provide the
attacker with unauthorised remote access to a compromised personal
computer by exploiting security vulnerabilities.
The vulnerabilities, dating back almost eight years, were reportedly
discovered on Vodafone’s fixed access network and broadband network
gateways.
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These systems enable the transmission of internet traffic as well as authenticating subscribers.
The backdoors, according to the report, posed a risk to subscribers
where their personal computers and home networks could be accessed by
third parties.
“Vodafone asked Huawei to remove backdoors in home internet routers in
2011 and received assurances from the supplier that the issues were
fixed, but further testing revealed that the security vulnerabilities
remained,” reported Bloomberg.
Vodafone, which is Safaricom’s largest shareholder, denied the report
saying the issues raised were all resolved in 2011 and 2012 and that
they could not have given Huawei unauthorised access to subscriber data.
Huawei is currently Kenya’s largest telecommunications equipment
provider, and this has raised questions over the country’s policy
direction in the wake of the escalating China-US trade war. The company
is responsible for laying a big chunk of the country’s
telecommunications network used by mobile network operators to reach the
over 42 million mobile phone subscribers.
SEE ALSO :Huawei’s Q1 revenue up 39pc to Sh2.7tr
According
to its 2018 Kenya Sustainability Report, Huawei has built 3,500 mobile
base stations in Kenya, translating to 62 per cent of the country’s
5,565 sites. Safaricom’s M-Pesa platform also runs on Huawei.
At the same time, the company is responsible for laying down 4,000
kilometres of fibre optic network that supply millions of subscribers
with mobile and fixed data services. It has also spread its smartphone
footprint in Kenya over the past few years and now commands a sizable
share of the smartphones and tablet devices market.
Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore said the company would continue
its relationship with Huawei into the foreseeable feature despite
Washington’s latest move.
“Huawei has been with us for a very long time,” he said when asked if
Safaricom would review its relationship with the company. “They provide
our mobile money service, core network, transmission and are at the
front end of 5G development. Our policy as a company is not going to be
driven by Donald Trump.”
Mr Collymore further said despite occasional disagreements, Safaricom is
satisfied with the competence and quality of work delivered by Huawei.
He is taking a cue from Safaricom’s parent company - Vodafone - which
has ignored boycott calls from the US and is working with Huawei in
exploring 5G network deployment.
SEE ALSO :Britain urges caution over Huawei role in 5G network
At
the same time, uprooting the network infrastructure already laid out by
Huawei is very costly and both mobile network operators and Huawei
stand to lose billions.
The value of Safaricom’s network infrastructure, for instance, currently
stands at Sh63.5 billion, and its operational life is estimated at
between three and 10 years.
Another Sh18.5 billion has been spent on ongoing infrastructure works.
The company has also invested an additional Sh17.8 billion in fibre
expected to last for 25 years.
Uprooting even 50 per cent of this capital infrastructure and installing
new equipment from other vendors could result in losses running into
billions of shillings that Safaricom is unprepared to absorb.
The Kenyan government has largely remained silent and is yet to give a
clear position on the issue, instead referring it to regional bodies.
Late last year, ICT Cabinet Secretary Joseph Mucheru said the African
Telecommunications Union (ATU) should give a directive on what course of
action African governments should take.
“There have been claims that Huawei and ZTE are listening to our
conversations and…I think ATU should be able to give us a position,” he
said while addressing newly elected ATU Secretary General John Omo who
happens to be Kenyan. Huawei has for its part repeatedly denied the
claims that it is being used to carry out espionage activities for China
through the digital infrastructure it installs across the globe.
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