UK security official to review Huawei centre

The top UK security official will review a cyber security centre operated by Chinese company Huawei to address concerns whether the telecommunications firm that played an increasingly large role in the UK's internet infrastructure could be relied on to police its own systems.

The government said yesterday that national security adviser Kim Darroch would review the workings of a Huawei facility known as ''the Cell,'' to ensure the integrity of the company's products, including routers deployed across the fibre optic cable network of the UK.

The parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) argued in a report that the Cell had been set up too late and was too dependent on Huawei personnel to provide the required oversight to ensure the system did not leave the door open to foreign espionage.

In recommendations published last month, the lawmakers suggested that the UK's technical intelligence agency GCHQ staff the site, to be run at Huawei's expense.

Prime minister David Cameron's office, in a six-page response to the committees' report, said Darroch would look into the recommendations as part of his review and report to the prime minister later in the year.

Huawei Technologies Ltd said in a statement it welcomed the review.

US politicians had claimed that the company posed a threat due to its links to China's government and military, with the allegations premised on the fact that the company's founder Ren Zhengfei, was a former member of the People's Liberation Army.

However, Huawei had strongly denied having close ties to the Chinese state stressing that it was owned 98.6 per cent by its employees.

Although the firm had been barred from bidding for many US infrastructure contracts, it remained active in the UK after it struck a multi-billion pound deal for providing networking equipment to BT in 2005.

A spokeswoman for Huawei highlighted the fact that the UK government had said it was confident that UK networks that used the firm's equipment "operated to a high standard of security and integrity".

Huawei shared the same goal as the UK government and the ISC in raising the standards of cybersecurity in the UK and ensuring that network technology benefits UK consumers, she added.

She said Huawei was open to new ideas and ways of working to improve cybersecurity.