Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on Wednesday rejected as “groundless” reports that the security of its telecom equipment could have been compromised by the US intelligence agency’s surveillance operations.
“These accusations are groundless and we do not agree with them,” Cathy Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer, said when asked about the reports.
“There are no security issues with Huawei equipment,” Meng told reporters. “Huawei products comply with industry standards.”
Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported last month that the US National Security Agency had installed hardware and software designed to give access to information systems in equipment made by companies including Huawei.
The New York Times on Tuesday said the US agency had covertly installed software on nearly 100,000 computers worldwide, allowing it to spy on them, and recruit them for possible cyber attacks.
Most of the spyware was installed via network connections, but the agency also devised a way of reaching unconnected computers through radio signals, the newspaper quoted NSA documents, computer experts and officials as saying.