To make matters even more suspicious for Huawei, its founder and president, Zhengfei Ren, worked as a military technologist for the People’s Liberation Army before his company’s founding in 1987. It’s a common theory that Huawei is actually state-owned, even though the company maintains that it is employee-owned. What’s the Situation So Far? In January 2018, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned consumers against purchasing Huawei phones. In the months following, it was revealed that Facebook had provided Huawei with special access to user data, and Huawei had also cheated on a benchmark test. In January 2019, Huawei was indicted on 23 counts of alleged trade secret theft and fraud. A few months later in March, a British watchdog organization confirmed that Huawei products were at a much greater risk than other devices. In April, Vodafone revealed the existence of hidden backdoors in equipment provided by Huawei; furthermore, the CIA stated that the Chinese state security were funding Huawei, which is suspicious to say the least. In May, the United States president issued a national security executive order that practically banned Huawei devices. This proclamation was called Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain. According to the United States Department of Commerce: “The executive order prohibits transactions that involve information and communications technology or services designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary whenever the secretary of commerce determines that a transaction would pose a threat to national security.” Basically, this was meant to deter companies in the United States from using technology produced by companies that were deemed to be a threat to national security… in other words, Huawei. Huawei’s Response to the Executive Order It’s no surprise that Huawei is not a proponent of these restrictions. Besides denying its products create security threats, the company has gone on the record implying that its inability to do business in the United States could affect the 5G cellular revolution. Huawei also claims that these restrictions could cause Americans to lose jobs. Recent Developments In late July, more than 600 workers were laid off at Futurewei, Huawei’s research and development subsidiary in the United States. Either way, there is a considerable amount of pushback in the technology industry regarding this ban on sales, which have since led to decreased measures instigated against Huawei. The company’s chairman, Liang Hua, has expressed interest in implementing a “no-spy agreement” with the United States. What are your thoughts on the way that this Huawei situation is being handled? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to our blog.
You can get a pretty good idea by getting answers to the following questions: Does it feel like you are dealing with repeat computer issues or regular downtime? This might seem pretty obvious. If your IT isn’t working, then what are you paying for? In fact, if your staff experiences regular bouts of downtime, you are actually losing revenue. Downtime can come in a lot of flavors, ranging from the entire network going down to a particular application not being accessible. Does it feel like your IT is being actively managed and maintained, or is your current IT provider waiting for you to call them? If a user comes into work and their computer doesn’t boot up, or users can’t access files on the network, is your IT person contacting you to let you know they are aware of the issue and taking care of it? Granted, IT can’t see every issue as it happens (we don’t know, for example, when a shortcut to open Microsoft Word gets removed from your desktop), but big things like connectivity issues, downtime, and problems that affect multiple users should be actively monitored at all times, and smaller issues like errors and required updates need to be managed frequently. Are emergencies treated like, well, emergencies? We mentioned this before with downtime, but does it feel like downtime is being handled with the utmost seriousness? Downtime is extremely expensive. If you have 10 employees that can’t work, that’s 10 paychecks you are still writing out at the end of the week, plus the loss of revenue those employees would have contributed to. Is your current IT provider responding to emergencies within an hour or less? Is every effort being made to get you back up and running? Can your employees get support without being worried about costing the business money? There is nothing worse to an end user than having to deal with an annoying computer problem that’s stopping them from simply getting their job done. It’s demotivating, especially when they don’t feel like they can get anything done about it. Ideally, if a user reports an issue to you, you should tell them they are welcome to put in a ticket and to let you know if it doesn’t come to resolution. Is your network fully documented? Is there documentation for each device on your network? That includes desktops and laptops, servers, printers, routers, access points, switches, VoIP phones, and other devices. This documentation should include purchase/installation dates, who installed it, model and serial numbers, warranty information, and access information. Is your data being backed up? It doesn’t matter how busy your IT staff or IT provider seems to be; your data should be their very first priority. If your data isn’t being meticulously backed up, and if those backups aren’t being checked regularly, it’s time to find someone who will take things seriously. Is your IT firm working with you regularly to discuss and review their own performance? IT isn’t just about fixing issues, it’s about making technology work for your business. If you don’t have an account manager who’s keeping you in the loop when licenses are expiring or software is getting out of date, you won’t be able to budget out your IT roadmap. On top of that, they should be […]
Keep Your Phone with You in Public This one is a bit of a no-brainer, unless you want to have your phone stolen. You should never leave your phone unattended in a public place. Not only could your own data be put at risk, but if you’ve accessed company documents via a Bring Your Own Device policy, who knows what the person who took your device might find before your device is remotely wiped? Besides, phones are by no means cheap, so it isn’t something you want to lose anyway. Keep Your Credentials Safe Most phones today offer to store things like passwords, PINs, and payment card details in order to make things more convenient for the user. However, this holds true if the user isn’t actually you, but is a cybercriminal who has stolen the device. It is better to simply not store these kinds of credentials in your phone, but if you absolutely must, only use a secure application to do so. If you aren’t sure which ones are secure, we can steer you in the right direction. Use Networks Wisely While Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are extremely useful means of connecting to the Internet and the peripherals you are trying to leverage, doing so without being mindful of your security is a dangerous prospect. Unprotected and unsecured networks can open your device to threats (along with any data stored on it). Do your best to avoid connecting to unknown networks and signals to keep from leaving your phone vulnerable to threats. Regularly Remove Data from Your Phone Your phone has a pretty good memory (so to speak) which means that it will retain a lot of data. Whether it’s your autocomplete feature keeping a record of personal data you have typed, or your browsing history providing an in-depth summary of your use of your phone, hackers and cybercriminals find precisely this kind of information to be valuable to them. Clearing this data reduces the information that a hacker could potentially access. When it comes to protecting your data – both business and personal – you need to consider all the ways that it is vulnerable to hackers. SRS Networks can help you do so. To learn more, reach out to us at (831) 758-3636.
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