Huawei to Join Intel’s Security Innovation Alliance
On November 4, 2016, Intel Security announced that Huawei would be added to the Intel Security Innovation Alliance. The Alliance is a partnership between a number of technology companies that provides,
…a truly integrated, connected security ecosystem to maximize the value of existing customer investments, improve efficiency, maximize protection, and reduce operating costs.
The purpose, ostensibly, is to allow firms to integrate their security systems and enhance their data analytics capability. According to the announcement, Huawei and Intel Security
…will work to provide ‘indicators of compromise data’ alerts to McAfee DXL and McAfee TIE, providing dynamic behavior analytics and intelligence sharing to customers.
The addition of Huawei to this cyber-security alliance raises a number of flags due to the Huawei’s history of running afoul of the U.S. security community, which has issued repeated warnings concerning the company’s ties to the Chinese security community. The U.S., Australian and UK governments have each expressed security concerns over Huawei’s ties to the Chinese military.
The UK intelligence agency, GCHQ, inspects Huawei equipment imported into the country at a specialized center, the Cyber Security Evaluation Center, as a means of doing business with the company. And, in May of this year, Canada denied entry visas to a number of Huawei employees over espionage concerns.
In entering the Security Innovation Alliance, Huawei will be exposed to cyber security technologies developed in the U.S. and become part of a cyber security service offered to customers globally. With increased scrutiny of Chinese tech acquisitions globally, this new association could come under some form of official scrutiny.