Huawei calls for intl co-op in cyber security

BRUSSELS - Huawei, a leading Chinese global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, on Wednesday called for international cooperation to meet cyber security challenges.

"The global supply chain of the ICT sector requires international cooperation to work on global solutions to cyber security challenges," said David Francis, cyber security officer with Huawei UK.

The remarks were made at an event in Brussels where Huawei was presenting its second white paper on cyber security "Cyber Security Perspectives: Making cyber security a part of a company's DNA."

In the ICT sector featuring the global supply chain, "there is no such a thing as an American product, an European product or a Chinese product," Francis said at the event.

"No company can fight cyber security threats on their own. There has to be an an alignment," he added.

Threats from cyber crime are at an all-time high, the white paper pointed out, in terms of sophistication and volume - and continue to trend upwards.

"At Huawei, we are determined to play our part in an open and active dialogue with a view to jointly creating more secure network infrastructure," Francis said.

Huawei detailed its position on cyber security in the 45-page white paper, after publishing a first one last year which stressed the company's commitment to working with public and private sector stakeholders to address the challenge.

The latest paper provides much more detail on its end-to-end approach to the design, building and deployment of technology involving cyber security considerations.

The company's cyber security strategy and governance structure are set out, as are its day-to-day processes, standards, staff management, R&D concerns, supply chain management system and security verification, manufacturing, delivery and traceability procedures.

John Suffolk, Huawei's senior vice-president and global cyber security officer, called for the establishment of international industry standards for cyber security.

"It is with an eye to the future that we recognize and embrace the need for international industry standards for cyber security," the paper quoted Suffolk as saying.

"The problem with standards today is that they are not standard, " Suffolk added.

The paper also devotes significant details to Huawei's way of managing third parties and supply chain and procurement practices, as well as describing its processes related to audit, traceability and defect and vulnerability identification and resolution.

The white paper launch followed a roundtable lunch held with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Sept 25 this year, to discuss the European Commission's proposed Network and Information Security Directive.

Francis, a keynote speaker at the EP event, told MEPs: "No one can stop cyber threats; what the world needs to do is collaborate. The bad guys will always by default be one step ahead of us."

"So, therefore, we need to collaborate to make sure we are trying to catch up as fast as we can," he said.

"Huawei's philosophy has been to build security into the core of everything it does, from the supply chain to architecture and people," he added.