Huawei opens cybersecurity center in Brussels

Chinese telecom giant Huawei opened a cybersecurity transparency center in Brussels on Tuesday, which allows its customers to test Huawei's source code, software and product solutions. 

Huawei said the Brussels center will be a platform where government agencies, technical experts, industry associations and standards organizations can collaborate on cybersecurity.

The new lab in the Belgian capital gives Huawei a venue to reassure EU policymakers about its cybersecurity credentials.

The company already has similar facilities in Britain, Bonn, Dubai, Toronto and Shenzhen.

The U.S. has been lobbying allied countries and companies to shun Huawei, which is a global leader in 5G technology, accusing that its products would pose national security risks to its customers.  

However, countries such as Britain, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand have signaled that they would not ban Huawei, as no evidence has been found that the company could conduct espionage with its facilities.

Huawei's Deputy Chairman Ken Hu delivers a speech at the opening of the Huawei Cyber Security Transparency Centre in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2019./Photo from Huawei website

Ken Hu, Huawei's Deputy Chairman, called for common cybersecurity standards at the opening of the center, which he said would help create trust in the industry.

"As a whole, the industry lacks a unified set of technical standards for security, as well as systems for verification. This is complicated by globalization of the value chain," he said.

Hu, who met with European Commission digital chief Andrus Ansip on Monday, said they had discussed the possibility of setting up a cybersecurity standard along the lines of the GDPR, the landmark EU data protection law adopted last year which gives Europeans more control over their online information and applies to all companies that do business with Europeans.

(CGTN)