Huawei, the mobile telephony and electronics conglomerate, has been branded a “long-term security risk” according to the National Cyber Security Centre – which is part of the Government’s listening spy agency GCHQ.

The report highlights the troubling issue surrounding Huawei as a tech vendor. As the Government and business more widely start to ramp up the 5G infrastructure, Huawei is a major player worldwide. However, with Canada, New Zealand and the US banning Huawei from critical 5G infrastructure, this latest report from a ‘five eyes’ nation highlights the problematic nature of Huawei as a vendor of choice for governments worldwide.

According to the report:

“The Oversight Board advises that it will be difficult to appropriately risk manage future products in the context of UK deployments, until Huawei’s software engineering and cyber security processes are remediated. The Oversight Board currently has not seen anything to give it confidence in Huawei’s ability to bring about change via its transformation programme and will require sustained evidence of better software engineering and cyber security quality verified by HCSEC and NCSC.”

This latest development will frustrate 5G roll-out in the UK in terms of infrastructure, but Huawei’s overarching trust issues could impact business expenditure on a range of Huawei electronic devices from smart phones to laptops and the security implications therein.