LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday an internal review hadshown the government needed to enhance its oversight of a cyber security centrein southern England run by Chinese telecoms firm Huawei.
Huawei suppliessoftware and equipment which channels phone calls and data around Britain, buthas found itself at the centre of a debate, particularly in the United States,over whether it is a risk for governments to allow foreign suppliers access totheir networks.
The Britishgovernment ordered a review of Huawei's cyber security centre in July afterparliament's intelligence committee said UK security checks were"insufficiently robust" when Huawei began working on the country'snetwork through contracts with companies such as BT in 2005.
Cameron said in awritten statement to parliament on Tuesday that his national security adviserhad concluded the government should enhance its oversight of the Huaweifacility and that the GCHQ spy agency should take a leading role in futuresenior appointments there.
Huawei, the world'ssecond biggest telecoms gear maker, opened the cyber security centre, known asThe Cell, in southern England in 2010 to test the security of its software andhardware to ensure that they didn't expose Britain's network to outside hackingor spying.
The review by thegovernment's National Security Adviser Kim Darroch said the centre wasoperating effectively and it was sufficiently independent from Huawei'sheadquarters.
国家安全顾问金姆·达罗齐在审查报告中说,该中心运转高效,与华为总部也足够独立。
But he added thatGCHQ could be more involved in assessing its performance and in verifying itscontinuing independence.
但是他又说道,英国政府通讯总部应该多参与到其表现的评估中,并判断其接下来是否依然独立。
Huawei, which hasalways denied wrongdoing and said its work is secure, welcomed Cameron'sstatement.
"We support thereview's recommendations to optimise the management of the Huawei CyberSecurity Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) and will continue to work with stakeholdersto improve its capabilities," the company said.
Darroch also saidgovernment ministers should have a greater say in assessing the securityimplications of developments in the telecommunications industry, addressing anoversight when BT awarded Huawei a multi-billion pound contract to upgrade itsnetwork.
The intelligencecommittee had said in July that parliamentarians were not made aware of thedeal until 2006, despite officials being informed two years before it wasawarded, which it said was an "unacceptable" lapse.
To that end, Darrochsaid Huawei's cyber security centre was "a model for governmentcollaboration with the private sector" in its understanding of thefast-moving nature of the industry.