Interesting article in this week’s Sunday Times detailing a high number of compromised computers ostensibly controlled and monitored by the Chinese Government. What is fascinating from my perspective is the fact that BT have opened their network up to potential disruption by utilising Huawei hardware in the rollout of their £10 bn 21st Century Network. Huawei are a classic Chinese clone producing very similar hardware with almost identical software (IOS) to that of American brand, Cisco. And this is the partner BT chose to supply key networking hardware for their biggest infrastructure project.
It raises interesting questions in terms of our national security let alone being able to support and maintain our national network in time of crisis. The global market may provide better value for money, but if history has taught us anything, is that today’s friend could be tomorrow’s enemy.
Not that our network even compares to the likes of BT’s in terms of scale, you will be pleased to know that we have stuck solely with expensive named brands in our topology!
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