Over this weekend the Chinese telecom giant Huawei has been thrust into the fore of media attention again after the commonwealth of Australia faced major cyberattacks with evidence pointing to the People’s Republic of China.
PM Scott Morrison announced a slew of attacks on the Australian Parliament, the Australian National Defence Department and the Australian National University. This attack comes hot on the heels of deteriorating relations between China and other members of the Commonwealth with a tense standoff between the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army. 20 Indian soldiers were killed in ceasefire violations by the Chinese army on the 17th of June in Ladakh.
Sir Richard Dearlove, a former leader of MI6 warned of the vicious Chinese strategy of attacking and denying point-blank any involvement or responsibility reported in an article in the Daily Express. As evidence, he sighted Beijing’s current policy of denying wrongdoing and blaming the victims of their attack for fabricating the claims in Australia. An Israeli cybersecurity firm linked the hacking software called Aria-body used for these malicious attacks directly to the Chinese Armed forces and there is overwhelming evidence surfacing of such a connection.
Ministers in Westminster are now seriously considering the threat of using a Chinese provider to enhance the UK’s proposed 5G network. In what is being dubbed a “cyber-9/11” the UK is preparing for a possible similar attack on its public infrastructure as reported by the Daily Mail. Having Huawei as a major provider of internet would only make such a pernicious attack more plausible and easy to carry out. The most vulnerable public service currently online is the NHS and in times of crisis with the pandemic, it seems altogether too simple to wreak havoc within the United Kingdom.
In hindsight, the United States of America’s ban on Huawei in 2019 and President Trump’s foresight in extending the ban till May 2021 may be a precaution that has left them less vulnerable to the Communist Party of China’s aggressive power play around the world, following the coronavirus crisis, the origins of which are still a mystery.
