US law makers turn their attention from Kaspersky to Huawei, urging AT&T to ditch Huawei equipment

Huawei is a danger to national security, claims US government

US lawmakers are putting pressure on telecoms giant AT&T to force it to cut its commercial ties with Chinese mobile phone manufacturer and network equipment maker Huawei.

According to Reuters, US authorities are worried that the wireless carrier's increasingly close ties with the Chinese company - founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in the People's Liberation Army - claiming that it poses "national security concerns".

Two congressional aides, who are unnamed, told Reuters that government officials fear that the increasing dominance of Chinese companies, such as Huawei, could threaten the country's security.

At the start of the month, the carrier binned plans to sell Huawei handsets to customers when members of Congress complained about the idea to federal regulatory bodies.

It wouldn't be the first intervention by the US government under President Donald Trump to rein in US-China trade.

US government bodies over the past year have halted several acquisitions of US companies by Chinese companies. These include the acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor by the Chinese-owned Canyon Bridge Fund and the proposed acquisition of MoneyGram by China's Ant Financial.

In the case of Lattice Semiconductor, the government opposed what it regarded as a transfer of technology to China, while MoneyGram's data on financial flows could be useful in terms of national security.

Lawmakers are thought to be deterring US companies from doing business with both Huawei and China Mobile by telling them they won't be able to offer their services to government officials or organisations, according to one of the unnamed aids.

Over the past few months, AT&T has been developing a close business relationship with Huawei. In particular, the two companies have been discussing standards for 5G technology, which AT&T hopes to implement this year.

However, according to the aides, Senators and Representatives want AT&T to halt this collaborative effort with Huawei. They're also unhappy with the fact that Cricket Wireless, a subsidiary of AT&T providing pre-paid mobile voice, text, and data, resells Huawei handsets.

Neither of the companies offered official statements, but AT&T did tell Reuters that it's yet to make a decision on 5G suppliers.

This isn't the first time that the US Government has been concerned with Chinese tech companies. In 2012, it investigated Huawei and ZTE over claims that they posed a threat to critical infrastructure. In the past, Huawei was accused of stealing intellectual property from Cisco. That case was settled out of court.

Michael Wessel, from the US China Economic and Security Review Commission, told Reuters: "The next wave of wireless communication has enormous economic and national security implications.

"China's participation in setting the standards and selling the equipment raises many national security issues that demand strict and prompt attention."

China hasn't been the only focus of US national security concern. Last year, fire was directed at Russian security software vendor Kaspersky, which was accused of exfiltrating information from the PCs of workers at the National Security Agency (NSA), a charge Kaspersky denied.

So far, it's widely considered that the US government has provided insufficient evidence to back up such claims.