Huawei Employees Help African Governments Spy On Political Opponents, Says WSJ

Huawei employees helped African governments spy on political opponents by using cell data to track their location and intercepting encrypted communications and social media, a Wall Street Journal investigation found.

The report, which did not find evidence that Huawei executives in China were aware of or approved the activities in Africa, could still add ammunition to the U.S. government’s allegations that Huawei could be used for espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. Huawei has denied these claims, but the U.S. has remained wary of the smartphone maker, with the Department of Justice filing criminal charges in two separate cases in January, alleging its CFO committed wire fraud and violated U.S. sanctions on Iran and that the company stole trade secrets from T-Mobile.

The WSJ investigation did not find evidence of spying activity by or on behalf of the Chinese government in Africa. It also did not find any unique features in Huawei’s technology that allowed spying activity to occur.

In two separate cases in Uganda and Zambia, the Journal found that Huawei employees used its technology to aid domestic spying on behalf of governments in those countries.

Huawei technicians working in Uganda’s police headquarters office used Pegasus spyware made by Israei company NSO Group to crack into the encrypted messages of a rapper-turned-activist named Bobi Wine, the Journal investigation initially reported. (The WSJ later corrected its article to reflect that the software was “Pegasus-style spyware” created by unknown other parties, not actually the Pegasus software from NSO.).

A cyber team based at the Ugandan police headquarters asked the Huawei technicians for help after failing to access the encrypted messages using the spyware, security officials told the Journal.

Read the full report at The Wall Street Journal.

SOURCE: cnbc