Philippines wary of Cloud-based computer donation from China firm Huawei: Follows reports the Chinese firm is using a programme for espionage
gulfnews, 4 August 2013
Manila: The education department has expressed concern over a computer donation given by Huawei, following recent reports that the Chinese firm is using a programme that could be used for espionage.
“We consider this a serious matter and we will look into this and study the matter very well before we do anything,” Mario Deriquito of the Department of Education was quoted as saying following reports that Huawei Technologies had “engaged in espionage on behalf of the Chinese state.”
Huawei, which manufactures telecom and computer products, had recently signed and partly fulfilled an agreement for the supply of 50 computers for the DepEd under a donation covenant worth P8 million (Dh671,900).
An initial 16 computers and a server had been delivered and installed by Huawei to the Tambubong Elementary School in San Rafael, Bulacan in Central Luzon while the remaining balance from the 50 units will be supplied later. The computers will be running on a Cloud-based system.
The donation had been welcomed by the government, until news came out that Huawei had been involved in espionage for China.
Based on a report published by the Australian Financial Review, former head of the US Central Intelligence Agency Michael Hayden was quoted saying he is aware of “hard evidence” that Huawei “would have shared with the Chinese state intimate and extensive knowledge of the foreign telecommunications systems it is involved with.”
Deriquito said the DepEd had not been aware of an allegation against Huawei before the Department agreed to the P8 million donation from Huawei for the Cloud-Based Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) system.
Deriquito said there was a possibility the government would cancel the donation.
Critics had earlier questioned the propriety of cancelling a donation for computers that would be used mainly for educational purposes but the Huawei donation also covers an agreement that will involve the acquisition and setting up of computers running under the Cloud platform for the government using the GovCloud.
Huawei had marketed the GovCloud as a “sustainable energy solution” as government would be able to spend less on energy since it would eliminate the use of several energy consuming computers using individual central processing units and would instead utilise fewer servers. But at the same time, tapping into the network would also open the possibility that Huawei could access sensitive information of the Philippine government.