British cybersecurity officials said Thursday they discovered major technical issues in Chinese telecom supplier Huawei’s software, posing risks to the United Kingdom’s mobile networks, according to The Associated Press.
Inspectors said they can give only “limited assurance” that British cybersecurity measures can manage long-term national security risks from Huawei’s involvement in the country’s telecom networks, the AP reported.
{mosads}Officials noted in their annual report on Huawei’s security that the company has not taken any action to address the security flaws identified in last year’s report.
The U.S. has campaigned for the U.K. and other European allies to forgo using Huawei to develop their next-generation mobile networks, arguing the company poses an intelligence threat and could be used by the Chinese government to conduct espionage.
The U.K. has said its cybersecurity authorities do not believe Huawei’s flaws were the result of state interference. All Huawei equipment in British networks has been inspected by an evaluation center since 2010, according to Reuters, and the board has been chaired by a top British cybersecurity official over the last five years.