KATHMANDU: Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company, is under scrutiny across the world, including Nepal, over concerns that the company’s technology may be used in spying against any country or has been involved in the hacking of important government websites.
For instance, around 200 Nepal Government sites were down for two days on May 4 and 5, 2019 reportedly because of hacking by Chinese technicians working for China Communication Services International (CCSI), a Chinese company and subsidiary of Huawei, a telecommunication giant, which police sources said has the capacity to destroy critical and strategic areas of Nepal.
On May 6, a joint team from Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police and Nepal Police cyber bureau personnel in plain clothes raided the office of CCSI at Naxal in Kathmandu to find around 25 Chinese technicians working in a rented office near the Nepal Police Headquarters.
Police sources told Khabarhub that the raid ‘triggered panic’ among the technicians, with some packing their laptops and fleeing the scene.
The police, however, confiscated some laptops and could get hold of some of the technicians. When interrogated about the nature of their job, some suspicious Chinese nationals came to the Naxal office and started ‘bargaining’ with the police personnel to ensure a ‘safe and secure passage’ of the hackers.
Upon interrogation, the police found out that the Chinese hackers were behind the hacking of the 200 Nepali government websites on 4 and 5 May 2019. “Such cyber capabilities may even destroy Nepal’s communication system,” a highly-placed police source told Khabarhub adding that the incident is evident that Nepal has, too, become more vulnerable due to Chinese hackers, who are present in Nepal in the pretext of laying trans-border optical fiber network.
However, police officials involved in the investigation said that it was not intentional on the part of the Chinese technicians. “It could be accidental during their effort to check the cyber capabilities and vulnerabilities,” the source said.
In March 2019, the CCSI hired around 35 software engineers, including 30 Chinese and 10 Nepali, for conducting survey work at different parts of the country for laying optical fiber for establishing 4G and 5G network in Nepal as per the contract given by the Nepal Telecom (NTC) to CCSI on January 2, 2019.
However, all the Chinese engineers, working for the survey, left for China on May 7, 2019, without completing the task. Likewise, the Chinese officer, who was looking after the survey work, left for South Africa ‘for assignment’. According to reports, it would take another one month to complete the survey for laying down the optical fiber.
The source said that the presence of Huawei Company in Nepal will be a major threat to the country’s national security and communication system.
It should also be recalled that Huawei had endeavored to take the contract of the development war room in the Prime Minister Office at Singha Durbar without any bidding process. This, the source claimed, can be seen as an attempt to capture Nepal’s confidential system, while dealing with other countries.
However, police spokesperson DIG Biswa Raj Pokhrel declined to comment saying he did not have any information about such case.
The developments in Nepal occurred at a time when there have been global concerns over Huawei’s close ties with the Chinese government, which could pose threat to various countries, including the US, Australia, Canada, among others.
Huawei — which manufactures smartphones, laptops, besides routers, switches, and servers – has been alleged of being exploited by the Chinese government to use its technology to spy on several world powers to steal government or military secrets.
This Chinese company has been an international backlash in recent times. Tech giant Google has announced it would cut Huawei off from some updates to the Android operating system following a US ban. This means that Huawei has lost its Android license, and its devices will no longer receive Android updates. It will also not have access to popular Google apps.
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