stories about: "vodafone"

Bloomberg Appears To Flub Another China Story, Insists Telnet Is A Nefarious Huawei Backdoor

from the protectionism-dressed-up-as-natsec dept

Tue, Apr 30th 2019 11:56am — Karl Bode

So we've noted for a while now how the Trump administration's protectionist bid to ban Huawei from US networks is a bit light on, you know, public evidence. While Huawei is now routinely lambasted for helping the Chinese government directly spy on American consumers, there's still no public evidence that supports that claim. That hasn't stopped the administration from waging an all out war on the company, ranging from pressuring the FCC to pressure carriers to avoid Huawei phones, to banning ISPs from getting public subsidies if they use Chinese equipment.

The problem, again, is that despite an 18 month investigation the last time these concerns flared up, there's been absolutely no public evidence Huawei spies on US consumers. The other problem: numerous US hardware vendors have a bit of a history of drumming up lawmaker hysteria on this front to their own benefit.

The Trump administration's protectionist gambit has had a lot of help from a US media that isn't particularly keyed into this added context, or how patriotism may color their coverage of the issue. The latest case in point: Bloomberg this week issued what seemed like a bombshell report claiming they'd finally found evidence of Huawei installing seemingly nefarious backdoors in their gear:

"Vodafone Group Plc has acknowledged to Bloomberg that it found vulnerabilities going back years with equipment supplied by Shenzhen-based Huawei for the carrier’s Italian business. While Vodafone says the issues were resolved, the revelation may further damage the reputation of a major symbol of China’s global technology prowess.

Europe’s biggest phone company identified hidden backdoors in the software that could have given Huawei unauthorized access to the carrier’s fixed-line network in Italy, a system that provides internet service to millions of homes and businesses, according to Vodafone’s security briefing documents from 2009 and 2011 seen by Bloomberg, as well as people involved in the situation."

And while that sounds monumentally terrible, that's not actually what happened. Follow up reporting quickly told a different story:

"In a statement, Vodafone said: "The issues in Italy identified in the Bloomberg story were all resolved and date back to 2011 and 2012.

"The 'backdoor' that Bloomberg refers to is Telnet, which is a protocol that is commonly used by many vendors in the industry for performing diagnostic functions. It would not have been accessible from the internet.

"Bloomberg is incorrect in saying that this 'could have given Huawei unauthorised access to the carrier's fixed-line network in Italy'. "In addition, we have no evidence of any unauthorised access. This was nothing more than a failure to remove a diagnostic function after development. "The issues were identified by independent security testing, initiated by Vodafone as part of our routine security measures, and fixed at the time by Huawei."

A Huawei spokesperson said: 'We were made aware of historical vulnerabilities in 2011 and 2012 and they were addressed at the time.

In other words, it wasn't a nefarious backdoor, it was just a screw up -- and not a diabolical one at that. This falls in line with what the UK and Germany governments have been saying: Huawei gear may sometimes be shitty, but that's not synonymous with malicious espionage. Both countries have cast doubt on US demands that Huawei be blacklisted globally, stating the US has not provided suitable evidence to justify such a move. The UK recently stated it would be tightening overall security and restricting Huawei's use in some of its more sensitive networks, but wouldn't be supporting an outright ban. If this political cartoon in the Guardian is any indication, some folks didn't take the news particularly well.

Bloomberg, of course, has been widely criticized for recently flubbing a story that claimed Chinese spies had infiltrated the supply chain and embedded surveillance backdoors in equipment used by major companies including Apple and Amazon. Like that story (albeit different authors), all the companies involved in this latest report say Bloomberg appears to have misread the evidence provided the outlet by anonymous third parties.

Again, none of this is to say the Chinese government is a saint. Its treatment and surveillance of political dissidents and its critics is well established. But that doesn't change the fact that before you blackball a company you should be able to provide actual evidence, something the US would justly demand were the shoe on the other foot. Nor does it change the fact that US gear makers have been trying to have Huawei banned for years for one real reason: they don't want to have to compete with cheaper Chinese kit:

"What happens is you get competitors who are able to gin up lawmakers who are already wound up about China,” said one Hill staffer who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. “What they do is pull the string and see where the top spins."

Journalists need to be careful not to be manipulated by US companies and their dubious shell operations hoping to gin up protectionist hysteria dressed up as natsec concerns. It also shouldn't be forgotten that the United States has engaged in much of the same behavior it has accused Huawei of, something usually ignored by journalists covering this story. That's not intended as "whataboutism" ("the US spies too therefore spying isn't bad!"), but to note that this is some important context that should be included in coverage but, somehow, usually isn't.

Meanwhile, China doesn't even really need Huawei to spy on Americans. Chinese gear is in pretty much everything from your smart doorbell to your router, and China's intelligence operatives are busy tapping undersea cables much like the US has for decades. Given Americans are busy happily attaching internet of things devices with paper mache grade security to every home and business network in America, there's a universe of attack vectors available to them that don't involve ruining the global reputation of one of their most successful companies.

Again, maybe Huawei does spy on Americans as a cutout for the Chinese government. But before engaging in a cross-continental blackballing effort of a hugely successful company, asking for some hard public evidence of that fact doesn't seem like too much to ask.

Filed Under: china, reporting, security, telnet
Companies: huawei, vodafone

53 Comments

Telco Giant Vodafone Looked At Journalist's Phone Records To See Who Was Leaking Info To Her

Privacy

from the that's-illegal dept

Mon, Sep 14th 2015 5:49am — Mike Masnick

Down in Australia, it appears that phone giant Vodafone is facing a bit of a scandal as it's come out that the company went digging into a journalist's phone records after she wrote some stories about security flaws in a Vodafone system. Remember, a decade ago, when there was a big scandal at HP, when it spied on board members to try to stop leaks? That was bad. This is worse. This is directly violating a customers' privacy, just because you're upset about some leaks.

In a 2012 email from then Vodafone Hutchison Australia head of fraud Colin Yates to then Vodafone global corporate security director Richard Knowlton, Mr Yates warns of the “huge risk” to the company if a string of allegations — which he “has no reason to believe” are not factual — “gets into the public domain”.

Of particular concern to Mr Yates was the hacking of the “call charge records and text messages” from the mobile of Fairfax investigative reporter Natalie O’Brien, then a Vodafone customer.

On January 10, 2011, the day after O’Brien broke a story about major security flaws with Vodafone’s Siebel data system — including that private call records could be illegally accessed — Vodafone investigators had discussions about searching her phone records to find the Vodafone sources for the story.

You can see the story by O'Brien here, in which she revealed that people could access Vodafone customer information, because a source she was talking to had the password to the company's database. This resulted in an investigation by Australia's Privacy Commissioner into Vodafone's security practices. Meanwhile, Vodafone tried to play the whole thing down as a "one-off incident" of someone abusing the password to the system.

Meanwhile, in the background, they were abusing their own systems to try to figure out who was talking to O'Brien -- and were admitting internally that they were misrepresenting the real situation publicly:

Following her story, Vodafone executives allegedly “told the press, the NSW Privacy Commissioner and other high-profile Australian agencies that the breach was a one-off incident”.

Mr Yates wrote to Mr Knowlton: “As you know this is in fact not the case and VHA has been suffering these breaches since Siebel went live and did nothing or very little to close off the weaknesses that allowed them to occur.”

Investigating a privacy breach by breaching the privacy of the reporter who exposed it is... perhaps not the proper response.

Filed Under: australia, journalism, leaks, natalie o'brien, privacy, security, sources, spying
Companies: vodafone

13 Comments

Now That Vodafone Has Come Out With A Real Transparency Report, Will US Telcos Follow Suit?

Privacy

from the of-course-not dept

Mon, Jun 9th 2014 8:26pm — Mike Masnick

On Friday, we reported the surprising fact that Vodafone had not just followed the latest trend in issuing a transparency report, but actually flat out admitted that many governments had direct access to its phone lines, which allowed those governments to listen in on calls without a warrant. That level of transparency is great, because all too often with the "transparency" reports we've seen from some companies, they seem more focused on hiding what's really going on. Too frequently, this is because of requirements from the government, which has (almost certainly illegal and unconstitutional) gag orders on what companies are allowed to say about requests for government information. However, it's almost certainly also because companies are now afraid of admitting the kinds of things they've allowed governments to do in secret -- and are worried about how the public would respond.

However, I'm hopeful that Vodafone's decision to just step up and admit the level of access that governments have had will lead other companies to "come clean" on the sins of their past, and how they've given governments way too much access. Rather than have it leak by a whistleblower, to have the companies step up and admit to exactly what's gone on, while at the same time calling for a change in laws and policies (as Vodafone did) might actually help to restore some confidence that these companies aren't just happily handing over access, but are willing to publicize what's happening and also fight back against the excesses as well.

In the US, for example, it was a remarkable struggle just to get the big telcos to finally agree to issue transparency reports -- and when those transparency reports were released, they were remarkably opaque, rather than transparent. Such a transparency report does little to build confidence in what's happening, and actually breeds greater distrust. Coming clean, saying what's really going on, and how the telcos plan to move forward, seems like the only real way to rebuild any semblance of trust.

Filed Under: surveillance, telcos, transparency
Companies: at&t, verizon, vodafone

6 Comments

Deutsche Telekom Follows Vodafone's Lead With Transparency Report: Disclosing Surveillance Operations

Privacy

from the a-trend dept

Fri, Jun 6th 2014 4:11pm — Mike Masnick

This morning we wrote about Vodafone's decision to release a much more accurate "transparency report" that actually revealed that many governments have direct access to listen in on Vodafone calls. It appears that has now inspired Deutsche Telekom to release similar reports about its surveillance help around the globe, including in the US.

A spokeswoman for Deutsche Telekom, which has 140 million customers worldwide, said: "Deutsche Telekom has initially focused on Germany when it comes to disclosure of government requests. We are currently checking if and to what extent our national companies can disclose information. We intend to publish something similar to Vodafone."

Of course, that "checking" suggests that while it may want to reveal similar to what Vodafone did, it will be limited in how much it can reveal in the US, where companies are often placed under strict (and almost certainly unconstitutional) gag orders. As the report notes, in Europe, this leaves Orange as the only one of the big three mobile operators who has not yet agreed to reveal such transparency on surveillance -- and it may put that company in a tough spot, since it apparently has "deep links" with French intelligence.

Either way, it's nice to see an outbreak in transparency when it comes to government surveillance.

Filed Under: mobile operator, privacy, surveillance, transparency report
Companies: deutsche telekom, orange, vodafone

2 Comments

Vodafone Reveals Government Agencies Have Direct Access To Its Network Around The World, No Warrants Required

Privacy

from the even-worse-than-we-thought dept

Fri, Jun 6th 2014 8:31am — Glyn Moody

One of the important results of Snowden's leaks over the last year is that the companies involved are not only becoming more open about how their services have been used by the NSA and GCHQ to spy on people, but they are even starting to push for less intrusion and more transparency. The latest to provide important information about what has been going on is Vodafone, with some fairly shocking news, as reported by the Guardian:

Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond.

The company has broken its silence on government surveillance in order to push back against the increasingly widespread use of phone and broadband networks to spy on citizens, and will publish its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report on Friday. At 40,000 words, it is the most comprehensive survey yet of how governments monitor the conversations and whereabouts of their people.

The company said wires had been connected directly to its network and those of other telecoms groups, allowing agencies to listen to or record live conversations and, in certain cases, track the whereabouts of a customer. Privacy campaigners said the revelations were a "nightmare scenario" that confirmed their worst fears on the extent of snooping.

The Guardian story has lots of new information, and is well-worth reading. It includes a table that shows the number of warrants issued last year for legal interception of content, on a country-by-country basis. There are some surprises here -- for example, the fact that the Australian government issued 685,757 warrants for metadata, which is even more than the UK's 514,608 warrants, despite the fact that Australia has well under half the population of the UK. There are other fascinating details in the Vodafone Law Enforcement Disclosure Report itself. For example, it contains this explanation about what exactly a warrant might encompass these days: Each warrant can target any number of different subscribers. It can also target any number of different communications services used by each of those subscribers and -- in a modern and complex all-IP environment -- it can also target multiple devices used by each subscriber to access each communications service. Additionally, the same individual can be covered by multiple warrants: for example, more than one agency or authority may be investigating a particular individual. Furthermore, the legal framework in some countries requires agencies and authorities to obtain a new warrant for each target service or device, even if those services or devices are all used by the same individual of interest. Note that in the majority of countries, warrants have a time-limited lifespan beyond which they must either be renewed or allowed to lapse.

As people's digital lives grow more complex and the number of communications devices and services used at home and work on a daily basis continues to increase, the ratio of target devices and services accessed to warrants issued will continue to increase. To illustrate this with a hypothetical example:

a single warrant targets 5 individuals;

each individual subscribes to an average of eight different communications services provided by up to eight different companies: a landline phone line, a mobile phone, two email accounts, two social networking accounts and two "cloud"; storage accounts; and

each individual owns, on average, two communications devices fitted with a SIM card (a smartphone and a tablet) in addition to a landline phone and a laptop.

In the hypothetical example above, that one warrant could therefore be recorded as more than 100 separate instances of agency and authority access to individual services on individual devices used by individual subscribers.
That means that the number of warrants listed in the Vodafone report, and collected in the Guardian table mentioned above, is likely to be a significant underestimate of the total number of acts of surveillance being conducted. Alongside the main report, there is also an 88-page Legal Annexe (pdf): This annexe to Vodafone's Law Enforcement Disclosure report seeks to highlight some of the most important legal powers available to government agencies and authorities seeking to access customer communications across the 29 countries of operation covered in this report.

Whilst the legal powers summarised here form part of local legislation in each of those countries and can therefore be accessed by the public, in practice very few people are aware of these powers or understand the extent to which they enable agencies and authorities to compel operators to provide assistance of this nature.
As that notes, very few people are aware of the powers that exist around the world, which makes this Annexe an extremely valuable contribution to charting the surveillance landscape, not least because it is being released freely. As well as for this research, Vodafone deserves credit for making the following call, as reported by the Guardian: Vodafone's group privacy officer, Stephen Deadman, said: "These pipes exist, the direct access model exists.

"We are making a call to end direct access as a means of government agencies obtaining people's communication data. Without an official warrant, there is no external visibility. If we receive a demand we can push back against the agency. The fact that a government has to issue a piece of paper is an important constraint on how powers are used."
That's a hugely important point. Direct access, as revealed by Vodafone, not only allows governments real-time access to enormous quantities of private communications data, but does so in a way that hides the fact that the interception is taking place at all, even to the companies involved. As Vodafone notes, introducing the requirement for a warrant for all such interception would make it much easier for companies to resist, alert the public to the sheer scale of the surveillance being carried upon them, and probably act as a natural brake on governments. Direct access to the network represents a huge exacerbation of the dangers of government surveillance: it is simply too easy to "collect it all." Vodafone's disclosure report is an important step towards changing that; the "other telecoms groups" mentioned above should now follow suit by issuing their own.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+

Filed Under: direct access, europe, surveillance, warrants, wiretaps
Companies: vodafone

11 Comments

Bad AT&T Ideas Are Contagious: UK's Vodafone Wants To Try 'Sponsored Data' Idea

Business Models

from the ridin'-them-pipes-for-free dept

Thu, Feb 13th 2014 2:13pm — Karl Bode

AT&T poured napalm on the network neutrality debate here in the States back in 2005, when then CEO Ed Whitacre proudly proclaimed in an interview he "wasn't going to let Google ride his pipes for free." Ed and most telco executives quite honestly believe that historically-pampered phone companies are entitled to an additional "troll toll" by content companies simply for the honor of touching the ISP network. Never mind that consumers and content companies already pay for bandwidth and (like Google) invest in infrastructure of their own, telco logic dictates that content companies get a "free ride" and must pay more. You know, because.

AT&T's attempts to double dip aren't just domestically dumb, predatory and dangerous, they seemingly have an infectious quality for overseas telcos looking for ways to make additional money for doing nothing, but who aren't gifted with AT&T's knack for truly obnoxious ideas. We've seen it in the way European telcos mimic AT&T's rhetoric in claiming content companies ride their pipes for free, and therefore really ought to pay an additional tax to the phone companies (again, you know, just because). Despite being such a bizarre, fundamentally flawed assumption, the concept carries a lot of traction in telecom circles, thanks largely to hired think tanks and PR flacks who go to great, great lengths to frame it as entirely reasonable.

Yet oddly, the "hey, give me more money for doing nothing" approach hasn't worked well, resulting in AT&T recently introducing their "sponsored data" idea. As we recently discussed, sponsored data involves certain large companies paying AT&T an extra fee to have their content not count against wireless consumer caps. While framed by AT&T as "free shipping" or a "1-800 number for data," it's simply more of the same idea, and potentially devastating for smaller companies and startups that can't afford to pay AT&T to get preferred listing in AT&T's promotional materials. AT&T's effectively imposing entirely arbitrary caps (based in no way on real-world economics or network congestion), then charging multiple times for the same bandwidth.

Not too surprisingly, AT&T's latest brain child has again had an infectious impact on overseas telcos. UK's Vodafone now says the company is interested in trying the sponsored data idea as well:

Vodafone is looking at offering sponsored data to its customers. The move would see customers agreeing to receive sponsored data on their devices in return for lower data bills. CEO Vittorio Colao revealed Vodafone's interest in sponsored dat this week. The CEO said he is closely watching US operator AT&T's recent move to allow sponsored data.

What Colao is watching for specifically is the regulator response to AT&T's sponsored data. If FCC boss and former wireless and cable lobbyist Tom Wheeler signs off on sponsored data as a form of "pricing innovation," that opens the door to the possibility that overseas regulators can be conned into thinking this is actually an innovative idea as well. It's worth noting that AT&T wanted to acquire Vodafone's wireless assets, but it's largely believed that AT&T's incredibly cozy relationship with the NSA has soured European regulators on the idea -- for now. After the European Parliament elections in May, it's very likely AT&T and Vodafone will merge to become one company, which can further help spread AT&T's bizarre and predatory logic worldwide.

Filed Under: data, sponsored data, uk, wireless
Companies: at&t, vodafone

28 Comments

Vodafone India Threatens Upset Customer With Defamation For Complaining About Bad Service

Defamation

from the yeah,-that'll-work dept

Mon, Jun 6th 2011 10:06pm — Mike Masnick

You would think, by now, that companies (especially big companies) would recognize that attacking customers who complain about service online is a strategy destined to backfire in a big bad way. And yet, it continues to happen. Vodafone India has apparently sent a legal nastygram to a customer who complained about crappy Vodafone service on Facebook, and tried to reach top management to get their attention. The story is made a bit more confusing by the guy complaining that Vodafone somehow has access to his "private" conversations, but (from the description in the article) it sounds like the guy might not have known that if you don't set conversations to private, then they're open to the public. Even so, the larger issue is the almost certain backlash for any company that threatens a customer (no matter how annoying) for complaining on Facebook or Twitter. Focus on fixing the problem, not attacking the messenger.

Filed Under: defamation, india
Companies: vodafone

9 Comments

Why Is Vodafone Spreading False Copyright Propaganda?

from the the-lies-we-tell-children dept

Thu, Mar 24th 2011 4:40pm — Mike Masnick

We've gotten used to various copyright industries spreading propaganda about copyright to school children. Nearly all the big copyright trade groups have "educational" curricula that are often not even close to accurate. They leave out things like "fair use" and they include blatantly false statements like "if you didn't pay for it, you stole it." Well, we didn't pay for your propaganda, so...

Still, it's a bit surprising to see others get into the copyright propaganda campaign as well. The latest, apparently, is telco giant Vodafone. Glyn Moody points us to the news that Vodafone Italy has started a typically inaccurate copyright propaganda campaign that makes false and misleading blanket statements like:

"[Parents and teachers should] explain to students that downloading and sharing a file protected by copyright is a crime"

Later on it repeats claims that all downloads without purchase or any download via P2P is illegal. But, of course, that's not true. It may be true in some, even many, cases. But that's not the same thing. If we're going to teach people copyright law, shouldn't it at least be accurate?

Filed Under: copyright, propaganda
Companies: vodafone

19 Comments

Twitter Finds Now It Has The Leverage On Mobile Operators

Wireless

from the oh-so-now-you-want-to-be-my-friend dept

Mon, Mar 30th 2009 11:16pm — Carlo Longino

One issue that's constantly popping up these days is friction between distributors and content or service providers. Companies on either side of the equation often overvalue their contribution, whether it's movie studios thinking they have the leverage over Netflix, or ISPs thinking they've got the upper hand over the likes of Google when it comes to net neutrality because they "control" the pipe. The content or services are worthless without the distribution; without the content, the distribution is worthless. It's not the case where one side always has the power, and often over time, the balance of power shifts. Such is the case with the news that Vodafone UK has enabled Twitter SMS services for its customers. Twitter irritated some of its international users last year when it stopped sending them SMS updates because of the costs. It's a pretty typical story in mobile: if you have a service you want to offer to users via SMS, you've got to be prepared to pony up the cash to mobile operators to reach "their" customers. When Twitter was a nascent service used by web dorks and media types, somebody like Vodafone wouldn't care about it. But as the service has gone mainstream, suddenly it behooves Vodafone to strike a deal with Twitter, make the costs workable, and be able to offer the service to its customers. The mobile industry has long engaged in these stupid battles over who "owns" the customer. Typically, the operator's take has been that they own the pipe, so they own the customer. But maybe they're finally figuring out that without any compelling services to travel through it, the pipe's not such a big deal.

Filed Under: leverage, sms
Companies: twitter, vodafone

6 Comments

European Mobile Operators Cooperate On Coverage

Wireless

from the if-you-can't-beat-'em dept

Tue, Mar 24th 2009 10:08pm — Carlo Longino

American mobile operators' advertising is still dominated by claims about their network coverage, from the "Can You Hear Me Now?" guy to consistent sniping about whose network is bigger. But in Europe, competing on coverage largely went out years ago, thanks to smaller geographic areas to cover and denser populations, while converging on a single technology didn't hurt, either. Some operators there have gone so far as to embrace network sharing, where they collaborate on their infrastructure with their rivals to cut costs. Vodafone and Telefonica have announced the biggest network-sharing deal so far, saying they'll jointly build new cell sites and consolidate existing ones in several countries across the continent. Network sharing is seeing renewed interest as operators look to trim their capital expenditures, but it can benefit consumers as well. In one sense, a lot of spending is duplicated by rival operators as they build out network footprints that are roughly equivalent; significantly reducing that cost would have a big impact on their businesses, and allow them to redirect some of those resources elsewhere. As a Telefonica exec says, "by reducing our costs in areas of the business that customers don't see, we can ensure that we invest in areas they truly value." Thus far, many operators' response to the commoditization of their product has been to try and differentiate on coverage; eliminating that factor could spur them to differentiate in other ways, such as with new and better services.

Filed Under: cooperation, europe, mobile coverage
Companies: telefonica, vodafone

10 Comments

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Bloomberg Appears To Flub Another China Story, Insists Telnet Is A Nefarious Huawei Backdoor

from the protectionism-dressed-up-as-natsec dept

Telco Giant Vodafone Looked At Journalist's Phone Records To See Who Was Leaking Info To Her

from the that's-illegal dept

Now That Vodafone Has Come Out With A Real Transparency Report, Will US Telcos Follow Suit?

from the of-course-not dept

Deutsche Telekom Follows Vodafone's Lead With Transparency Report: Disclosing Surveillance Operations

from the a-trend dept

Vodafone Reveals Government Agencies Have Direct Access To Its Network Around The World, No Warrants Required

from the even-worse-than-we-thought dept

Bad AT&T Ideas Are Contagious: UK's Vodafone Wants To Try 'Sponsored Data' Idea

from the ridin'-them-pipes-for-free dept

Vodafone India Threatens Upset Customer With Defamation For Complaining About Bad Service

from the yeah,-that'll-work dept

Why Is Vodafone Spreading False Copyright Propaganda?

from the the-lies-we-tell-children dept

Twitter Finds Now It Has The Leverage On Mobile Operators

from the oh-so-now-you-want-to-be-my-friend dept

European Mobile Operators Cooperate On Coverage

from the if-you-can't-beat-'em dept

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