A senior US cyber security official has called on the UK to “push back” against authoritarian regimes like China that use technology to conduct damaging online attacks and economic espionage.
The comments from Robert Strayer, a deputy assistant secretary of state, mark a further ratcheting up of the pressure by Washington over the UK’s view that it can mitigate the risks of involving the controversial Chinese telecoms group Huawei in future fifth-generation mobile networks.
“Given what is at stake and the uncertainty surrounding a rapidly evolving technology, we believe that using untrusted vendors anywhere in a 5G network introduces an unacceptable level of risk that cannot be mitigated,” Mr Strayer said in a speech at parliament on Wednesday.