5G: Exclusion of Huawei leads to "the worst danger"

If the exclusion of the Chinese network equipment leads to the fact that only two or one equipment supplier remains in the German 5G network, this is "the worst danger that can arise technically we can not secure, that flies in our ears". That said Professor Harald Görl from the University of the Bundeswehr Munich on November 11, 2019 at the public hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee chaired by Norbert Röttgen (CDU). The politician had previously spoken out vehemently for a ban on the supplier Huawei in Germany.

According to Görl, who is an expert in operating systems and computer architectures, China can not do it all. There are dependencies on memories and displays, even if capacities are built up here. If two outfitters were excluded (Huawei and ZTE), then three remained (Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung). "If something goes wrong, we only have two or one outfitters, and the Asians are very independent or will be chips."Görl emphasized. That could not be said for the European providers.

No single state and no single company can dominate such systems alone, Görl said to the demands of politicians, as in the armaments sector to build a European 5G manufacturer.

According to Görl, the threat analysis revealed that network operators had to protect the availability and integrity of data against monocultures. Secure the confidentiality of the metadata and with cryptography the confidentiality of the discussions.

Martin Schallbruch of ESMT (European School of Management and Technology) emphasized that 5G is much more about the software, which raises the question of the threat of attacks on downstream systems.

Huawei is a cooperative company, said David Wang, Deputy Chief of Huawei Germany. "At Huawei, there is no government-owned stock, no employee or manager is appointed by the government, Huawei is a co-worker, so we all make sure that nobody does anything wrong, which destroys the company." Suppliers must also ensure that the products are free of any third party influence.

There is no legal basis for Chinese companies to collect data abroad for the Beijing government. Wang: "We feel no pressure here and are clearly subject to German legislation." Huawei also does not operate the networks themselves, therefore obtain no customer data and have no access to the networks.

The three mobile operators in Germany had repeatedly spoken out against exclusion from Huawei. Thomas Tschersich, Head of Group Security Deutsche Telekom, had not appeared in the hearing despite the pledge.