When it comes to security, it is more important to secure everything, from sales, to HR to supply chain, than to focus on origin.
Huawei global security chief, John Suffolk, made the observation during the Communications Alliance Forum in Sydney, in relation to the company’s Chinese roots.
“We are a Chinese company that most people have heard of, and we are proud of our heritage and roots,” he said.
“The reality is that some people have concerns about the company and a country they know little about.”
Suffolk highlight that Huawei is one of the most audited and inspected companies in the world, and it helped the vendor get a more comprehensive view on what good security is.
“People assume that since a Dell computer is American, because the company is American,” he said.
“However, 70 per cent of the components that go into our hardware is not made by us.”
According to Suffolk, the majority of parts in Huawei’s products is actually made by other vendors from around the world.
“When you look at a label, you make one set of assumptions, but for us it is about risk management and not elimination,” he said.
For that reason, Suffolk said the priority should be to secure those thousands of suppliers.
“There is very little point in focusing on the 30 per cent when the threat is coming somewhere else in the supply chain,” he said.
The meaning of security
The challenge that Suffolk sees clients in Australia facing is how to translate what they want to do with security into specifications and into law.
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“Customer, whether they are government or not, are struggling to find out what good security looks like,” he said.
Suffolk said that the definition of cyber security will also vary between people, both locally and around the world.
“Most people who talk about security do it in terms of bits and bytes, hardware and software, and vulnerabilities,” he said.
“That is absolutely true, be it is not the be all end all of cyber security.”
Patrick Budmar covers consumer and enterprise technology breaking news for IDG Communications. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_budmar.