Supply chain transparency is essential in a world where any major nation state or malicious actor can hack anyone, warned Huawei USA CSO Andy Purdy.

Recent attacks on Microsoft Exchange Servers and SolarWinds showed “so-called trusted suppliers can't be trusted,” Purdy told SDxCentral. “The fact is the major nation states — the United States, China, Israel, and some others — have the ability to hack into anyone.”

To combat this, Huawei established global cybersecurity and privacy assurance, enterprise-wide risk management, and internal conformance programs, he said. “That's what we recommend for all organizations.”

In addition, Purdy emphasized the importance of visibility and transparency.

“We are very open and trying to be transparent and we believe [we are] one of the most transparent companies in the world,” he touted. “This is what we think is important.”

Huawei’s emphasis on transparency comes in stark contrast to allegations leveled by the U.S. and its allies that the telecom giant installed backdoors in its appliances at the behest of the Chinese government. Huawei fervently denies these allegations.

To assuage customers, Huawei has put its appliances under the spotlight, opening seven transparency centers globally with the most recent opening in Dongguan, China last June. The centers allow customers, partners, governments, and experts to test Huawei’s products to see if they find problems or issues, Purdy said.

“If there are things that we should be doing differently, let's talk about it, give us the input,” Purdy said. “It’s part of the collaboration that is necessary in the world to make for a safer cyberspace.”

Due to statutory and regulatory limitations on Huawei, it cannot bring any products into a transparency center in the U.S. to test.

Despite this, Purdy challenged Huawei’s competitors and all the major suppliers and operators to be more transparent. “There should be transparency centers in the U.S., there should be transparency centers for everybody around the world,” he said. 

Purdy also called for equal scrutiny on every vendor's critical components and products. 

“There's a tremendous growing dependency on 5G and 5G-enabled technologies,” which puts human lives and the function of critical infrastructure at risk, he warned. “It's time to put aside the BS and the name calling, it's time to work together to raise the bar.”

“Too much of the focus is on 'let's block Huawei, let's block China,'” he said. Instead, “let's make us all safer.”

Huawei has consistently and repeatedly dismissed any notion that its network equipment and software provide a back door for Chinese spies to monitor traffic. But many Western governments are holding firm on laws and other mechanisms that have been enacted to ban the use of Huawei equipment within their respective borders.

The vendor expected 2021 revenue to fall 29% to around $99 million, reportedly suffering from U.S. sanctions, the supply shortage, and smartphone demand decline. 

When asked about a recent accusation from a Bloomberg report alleging Chinese hackers used Huawei’s equipment for malicious actions in Australia, Purdy said he was not familiar with the accusation. 

“But the fact is that it's critically important for the world governments and private experts to notice and share information about all kinds of significant cyberattacks,” he added.

In a recent statement, Huawei refuted the report and claimed its equipment “doesn’t have malware.”