Huawei to invest $2 billion in cybersecurity

Huawei has reiterated its commitment to the highest cybersecurity standards, which it says will remain a cornerstone of its global business.

The firm is investing at least $2 billion to enhance its software engineering, something it considers crucial in realizing its long-term aspirations.

Deputy chairman of the board and rotating CEO Eric Xu said the $2 billion will be used primarily for legacy code refactoring and training or up-skilling research and development engineers.

The tech company hopes this will ensure in the next three-to-five years it can build products trusted by both governments and customers.

Xu made the remarks last week addressing media from the United Kingdom, where he cited the firm's partnerships with the UK government as a key indicator of its commitment to maintain global ethical standards in tech.

"Some politicians have turned either 5G or cybersecurity into political or ideological discussions, which I believe are not sustainable. I believe technology is technology. Ultimately it will depend on scientists and engineers to make it happen," Xu said.

He said Huawei's collaboration with the UK government and tech industry offers a role model for China-UK cooperation.

"The UK government has had concerns about the security of Huawei's equipment. That's the very reason that the company has worked together with the UK government in putting in place the Cyber Security Evaluation Center (CSEC), to embark on partnerships to address those concerns.

"This is a model of open collaboration between the UK government and Huawei to address the concerns around Huawei equipment deployed in UK networks," he said.

Xu explained that the discussion on so-called "backdoors" into tech products was addressed in the UK when Huawei delivered its source code to the UK for testing.

The CSEC looked at Huawei products to see how capable they are of preventing attacks, penetration, and other possible threats.

"Huawei has spent eight years to improve its products' defensive capabilities against possible attacks and possible penetration.

"Through the efforts of those past years, Huawei today is the strongest in terms of those dimensions, and that is not something that we ourselves claim. It's based on objective and extensive assessment and testing by Cigital, a US company that is specialized in this area," Xu said.

In order to adhere to UK cybersecurity standards and serve the British people well, Xu said GCHQ has put in place a series of systems to ensure solid management and regulation of mobile communication networks.

"Essentially we will take the future standards and future requirements to rebuild our process of software production, and we are going to follow those future standards as we work to refactor our legacy code," he said.