LIVE FROM MOBILE 360 SECURITY FOR 5G, THE HAGUE: Huawei ducked the obvious elephant in the room during a presentation, with its director of global cybersecurity and privacy focusing on general security concerns around new technologies rather than its ongoing troubles in the US.

Sean Yang (pictured) argued the case for renewed efforts around 5G security, explaining these must take into account the concerns of governments, businesses and consumers, while also taking on board the needs of vertical industries rather than focusing on the telecoms sector alone.

“There’s a kind of perceptional and also factual dimension of such kind of attention” on 5G security, he said, noting “both must be taken seriously”.

While Huawei and other infrastructure vendors continue to work with traditional telecoms standards groups including 3GPP and GSMA, he said it was now the time for the industry to make a “better arrangement for all this risk assessment”, by inviting all the players in the industry to participate in the process.

The broader set of standards, risks and concerns introduced into the telecoms sector by vertical industries means governments, regulators and standards bodies need to adapt quickly with suitable regulations, legislation and specifications. Yang argued: “We should develop security with the shared responsibility.”

Changing requirements
Privacy and security are factors that must be considered when products and solutions are at the design stage, a factor Yang said even Huawei has had to come to terms with: “In the beginning we were suppliers, we built a secure box and we deliver to carriers,” which were then left to handle safety features alone.

“Now we realise that we need to work very closely with our customers because to build cyber resilience is also our responsibility,” he explained.

The vendor already operates six security verification labs across the globe and is “working very hard with our third-party partners, with our customers, with government regulators” to use them to “improve the co-operations, the conversations and joint innovations”.

Yang also highlighted AI as a field requiring swift action on regulation, particularly with regard to ethics.

With software being developed all over the world, a key challenge in this regard is bringing together potentially disparate views on ethical principles, meaning companies must take responsibility in terms of establishing common ground and training staff. “We need to build up a clear principle to let all the people understand” the parameters required to deliver AI that is predictable, open and transparent, Yang explained.