The problem with Huawei is not unlikely backdoors, but HUMINT from its employees

I don't think Huawei ever did or ever will build deliberate backdoors in its products. And this assumption isn't naive. I know that Huawei is bound to the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese security services, and will do whatever they demand. And China is no state based on law, no laws or agreements would prevent them from doing anything.

But I'm pretty sure they will not dare because it would be too risky. The chance that such a backdoor will be detected is very high, I see at least 3 serious threats for them:

First, information about such backdoors could leak from internal sources.

Second, their hard- and software will be reverse-engineered by various people, organisations and state actors.

Third, the data you collect with a backdoor must somehow be exfiltrated. This is an often underestimated challenge, because there is a serious risk being detected by network monitoring.

I have no doubt they would like such a backdoor. But I don't believe they are idiots. They will weigh it against the risks and go without.

So it doesn't surprise me that so far there is no proof at all for Huawei backdoors. I will only believe when I see it with my own eyes. I cannot with good faith on the one side ridicule nonsense Snowden claims and on the other side blindly believe in totally unproven and implausible accusations against Huawei.


But there is a real espionage threat

When we, or better said German wireless carriers, will deploy 5g with Huawei equipment, they will need the help of many Huawei technicians and consultants, and these Huawei employees will necessarily have a deep insight in the companies and a lot of spying opportunities will show up. This is the real problem. While you can never rule out that individuals cooperate with intelligence agencies, we must assume that every Huawei (at least the Chinese ones) employee voluntarily cooperates with Chinese intelligence or can be forced to.