Negative opinion of Italy security committee Copasir on Huawei, ZTE 5G solutions

Italian parliamentary security committee Copasir said that Italy should consider preventing Huawei and ZTE from taking part in the development of 5G networks.

The Italian parliamentary security committee Copasir (Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic) said that the Government should consider preventing Chinese telecoms companies Huawei and ZTE from participating in the development of national 5G networks.

In November 2018, US Government invited its allies to exclude Huawei equipment from critical infrastructure and 5G architectures.

The Copasir commission submitted a document to parliament on December 12, its opinion is not binding for the government strategy of building the 5G national infrastructure.

“The committee also called for additional government steps to protect the domestic 5G network from companies with links to foreign government, such as ZTE and Huawei.” reported the Reuters agency.

The commission believes that the participation of Chinese companies in the building of the Italian 5G network constitutes a danger to national security. The document states that it is appropriate to consider the possibility of “excluding the aforementioned companies from the activity of supplying technology for 5G networks”.

“The committee cannot help but consider that the concerns about the involvement of Chinese companies in the installation, configuration and maintenance of 5G network infrastructure are to a large extent founded,” states the Copasir.

Huawei reaffirmed that it is open to any cooperation with all Italian government entities and refused any accusation of operating under the control of the Chinese Government with the intent to spy on Western countries.

ZTE did not comment about the report, but a company spokesman for the Chinese firm confirmed that ZTE will provide any information required by the security committee.

“Government sources told Reuters at the time the decision reflected concerns over the role of Huawei and ZTE.” confirms

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Copasir, hacking)

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