Business & Economy

Huawei inaugurates cybersecurity center to demonstrate its transparency

Beijing, Jun 9 (EFE).- Chinese tech firm Huawei on Wednesday opened a cyber security and privacy protection center in the southern city of Dongguan in an attempt to provide guarantees and transparency in the digital world.

The United States has accused Huawei of ties to the Chinese military and intelligence agencies.

The company’s Rotating Chairman Hu Houkun, during a virtual presentation of the center, underlined the need to establish “joint international standards” on cybersecurity to address the “threats” faced by businesses, countries and users of new technologies.

He added that the center will be available to its partners, customers and other interested parties.

Hu said the center will show the company’s security practices and offer more support to its customers, giving the general public and regulators a reason to “trust the safety” of their products and services.

Until the end of 2020, the company had filed 2,963 patents worldwide for inventions related to cybersecurity and privacy protection, according to a statement by Huawei.

The center also aims to facilitate communication with other actors to develop safety standards and provide a verification platform for customers and partners.

The firm’s head of global privacy and cybersecurity, John Suffolk, on his part, spoke of the need for “industry-wide collaboration” to provide guarantees in these areas.

The Chinese firm, strained by US sanctions, is trying to diversify its operations into sectors as diverse as self-driving technologies, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Suffolk claimed the center was not created in response to the US sanctions, but as a part of their own strategy of offering verification services to our customers.

Washington’s sanctions have deprived the company of using Android, Google’s operating system for smartphones, and since then its sales in the mobile phone sector have nosedived to the extent that it was no longer in the top five phones sold in the first quarter of 2021.

Last week, Huawei officially introduced its HarmonyOS 2 operating system as an alternative.

Washington also warned global semiconductor manufacturers from trading with Huawei if they used any US product, and pressurized its allies to stop the Chinese firm from participating in the construction of its future 5G networks.

This led to Huwai losing out on opportunities in countries such as Sweden, Canada, United Kingdom, Slovenia and Japan.

The disagreements between Washington and Huawei reached a tipping point on May 15, 2019, when former US President Donald Trump banned American companies from using telecommunications equipment manufactured by companies allegedly attempting to spy on the US, in which it included the Chinese firm. EFE

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