The recent arrest in Canada of the chief financial officer of Huawei has created a fresh flashpoint between the United States and China.
It reveals that fresh attention is being paid to the mechanisms of, as well as the implications of, Chinese technological leadership.
Many of the five eyes countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and US) have imposed restrictions on Huawei and its compatriots in the same industry, such as ZTE.
The Government of Japan has also moved to prevent these companies from dominating the fifth-generation telecom rollout domestically.
What are the lessons for India?
India is a leading player in the consumption and use of new technology.
The commercial rollout of 5G is expected to take place in India in 2020.
The Indian government has invited Huawei to be a part of 5G trials in the country.
Early this year, Huawei also conducted 5G trials in laboratory with Bharti Airtel in India.
However, it is important for the government to ensure that there is transparency about national security as well as the commercial interests at stake in this and similar cases.
The dangers of permitting state-linked companies such as Huawei to become the primary guarantors of the effectiveness of India’s telecom backbone are real, and should be avoided.
Also, India’s protections against breaches in the high-tech, telecom and cyber domain need urgent review.
It is far from clear that there is sufficient capacity or awareness about the degree to which Indian systems can be or have already been penetrated.
Stress testing is used to test the stability & reliability of the system.
This test mainly determines the system on its robustness and error handling under extremely heavy load conditions.
It is not clear whether stress tests have been run or simulated to determine the stability of India’s technological framework in the event of various geopolitical crises.
What should be done?
Technological infrastructure is crucial in the 21st century and should be an important part of security preparedness and theorising.
Thus, the government could consider coming out with a white paper establishing its strategy in this respect, similar to the one on data protection.
