Huawei moves to quell security concerns in Poland

Huawei moves to quell security concerns in Poland

Huawei has pledged to work with authorities in Poland to alleviate security concerns over its equipment as it faces being frozen out of the market.

Poland’s government is considering whether to join a number of developed markets in forbidding the use of Huawei’s equipment in 5G network deployments.

In response, the company’s Poland chief Tonny Bao said that Huawei would readily set up a cyber security lab in the country “if authorities accept this as a trusted solution”. The company has already established security-focused units in Germany and the UK in a bid to quell concerns over the safety of its equipment.

Speaking at a Warsaw press conference, Huawei’s senior standards manager for Europe Georg Mayer said that the security concerns that have flared up around the vendor had not impacted its sales of end-user equipment. However, he noted that “if the situation continues, at some point it will impact our business as well”.

Huawei is already under significant pressure in Poland, with one of its employees having been arrested in the country last month. Chinese national Wang Weijing was apprehended together with Polish former intelligence official Piotr Durbajlo on suspicion of working for Chinese intelligence agencies. Huawei immediately sacked Wang and disavowed his actions, saying they had nothing to do with the company.