Originally Nederland #6 >>13322603

(translated via Yandex)

'Data from millions of Telfort customers accessible to Chinese company Huawei'

The Chinese company Huawei has had unlimited access to data from millions of Telfort customers. The company was able to extract customer files from Telfort's data. KPN, the parent company of Telfort, already knew about this in 2011, but did little else with the discovery, writes De Volkskrant.

Huawei was responsible for Telfort's customer and billing environment. KPN did research on this in 2011, which would have brought up 'disturbing signals'. Huawei would have had access to all customer data, unlimited and without any supervision. The Chinese company had given itself the position to consult it at all times, and did so.

Following the findings in 2011, KPN did not conduct any further investigation into Huawei's access and relocation of customer files. Customers were also not informed and no notification was made to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens). The latter was not compulsory at the time.

According to KPN, there was 'no reason to assume that data from Telfort customers had been stolen, by anyone'. The systems are no longer in use and according to the KPN 'all improvement measures' have been followed up and implemented in the following years.

'AIVD warned against Chinese espionage'

What makes this situation possibly worrying is that KPN has been warned several times about espionage from China. According to the AIVD, several files of Chinese spy groups matched those of KPN, which may indicate that the files of the KPN were leaked to the spy groups. The AIVD would have discovered a 'hidden path' towards KPN data and Huawei would be the only one who could access that data.

Espionage from China has long been a concern for intelligence services. Telecom companies are a wanted target because of the huge amount of data they own.

Huawei partially excluded on 5G network

The Dutch government also fears espionage from China via Huawei. For example, the company is excluded from the most sensitive parts of new 5G networks, but is still allowed to supply network equipment. Britain does not allow that at all, the country has officially banned the Chinese company. Belgium also has plans to ban Huawei.

https://radar.avrotros.nl/nieuws/item/gegevens-van-miljoenen-telfort-klanten-toegankelijk-voor-chinees-bedrijf-huawei/