Over the past decade, the US government has viewed Chinese telecom giant Huawei as a potential security threat to the country, fearing that the company has close affiliations with the Chinese government.

NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden show that the NSA created back-doors into Huawei servers and devices in order to discover if there existed ties between Huawei and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The operation fell under the codename “Shotgiant” which started in 2007. Hacking into Huawei had the additional opportunity to gather intel other targets such as Iran,  Afghanistan, and Pakistan – countries to whom Huawei distributed their technology.

The US government has been proactive in preventing Huawei from entering the US market. In 2008, they blocked Huawei from purchasing 3com and in 2012,  the House Intelligence Committee released a report which recommended that “The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) must block acquisitions, takeovers, or mergers involving Huawei and ZTE given the threat to U.S. national security interests. Legislative proposals seeking to expand CFIUS to include purchasing agreements should receive thorough consideration by relevant Congressional committees.” [Page 45]

via The New York Times (paywall)

Photo by John Karakatsanis on Flickr