Huawei May Take a Decade to Access U.S Market due to Cybersecurity Concerns

Due to the higher standards outlined on cybersecurity concerns, it may take Huawei a decade to gain access to the U.S. market.

Huawei Technologies Co. said that it needs to resolve cybersecurity issues and comply with the U.S. cybersecurity standards for it to gain access to the U.S. market. It may take the Chinese international networking and telecommunications equipment company about 10 years to do so.

In its great effort to penetrate the U.S. and Australia markets, Huawei released Friday its second report specifying its methodology in dealing with cybersecurity issues and strategies to meet the cybersecurity standards. The company's report also calls out for the government and industry to create a globally consistent set of standards.

John Suffolk, Huawei's global cybersecurity officer, told Bloomberg in a phone interview, "America has genuine concerns, and it's Huawei's responsibility to satisfy those genuine concerns. We will continue to work with our American colleagues to satisfy their needs and concerns and we believe we can do that."

It can be recalled that in July, Michael Hayden, former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, explained that it is inappropriate to let Huawei create and market telecommunications network because at some point, the company will most probably gain knowledge on how foreign systems work and they might feed the China government with sensitive information.

Huawei responded to Hayden’s accusation. Huawei's deputy chairman who leads the company's Global Cyber Security Committee said in a press release, "We have never received any instructions or requests from any government or their agencies to change our positions, policies, procedures, hardware, software or employment practices or anything else."

"We have never been asked to provide access to our technology, or provide any data or information on any citizen or organization to any government," Hu added.

Huawei said it considering publishing a list of top 100 issues its customers have expressed about cybersecurity.