China blasted as "economic bullying" a US proposal to block service providers buying from Chinese tech companies Huawei and ZTE. The two Chinese vendors have been accused of posing a threat to national security because of their ties to the Beijing government.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said that the proposed rules were part of an initiative to "safeguard the nation's communications networks".

FCC chairman Ajit Pai also said: “We cannot ignore the risk that the Chinese government will seek to exploit network vulnerabilities in order to engage in espionage, insert malware and viruses, and otherwise compromise our critical communications networks”.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang slammed the US proposal as an attempt to "oppress certain Chinese businesses with groundless accusations".

"The United States' economic bullying goes against the market principles which the US has always trumpeted," he said.

The proposal, to be voted on November 19, marks the latest effort by Washington to further damage Huawei’s global reputation.  Huawei says that US has provided no proof of any security risks posed by the company.

"In 30 years of business, Huawei has never had a major security-related incident in the 170 countries where we operate," the statement said.

"Banning specific vendors based on country origin will do nothing to protect America's telecommunications networks."

In May, Washington said it would blacklist Huawei from the US market and from buying crucial US components, though it has twice extended the company 90-day reprieves, the latest coming in August.

The United States has expressed concern that Huawei equipment could contain security loopholes that allow China to spy on global communications traffic, and has pressured US allies to block the use of Huawei equipment.

MEF has announced the 15 MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstration teams selected to participate in the sixth annual MEF 3.0 PoC Showcase at MEF19, held 18-22 November 2019 at the JW Marriott LA LIVE in Los Angeles, California.

The Showcase will bring together 46 of the world’s leading service and technology providers to present groundbreaking demonstrations of SD-WAN, inter-provider and intra-provider service automation with LSO APIs, AI/ML, security, intent-based networking, Blockchain, Carrier Ethernet, satellite services, 5G, network slicing, IoT, private cloud, service assurance, and more.

“This has been an extraordinary year of innovation as industry players strive toward a common goal of accelerating adoption of dynamic and assured services across automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks,” said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF.

He continued, “We look forward to the PoC teams spotlighting the huge progress being made in MEF 3.0 service and technology development and implementation.” 

“It has been a pleasure working directly with top service and technology experts from around world who are participating in the MEF 3.0 PoC Showcase,” said Daniel Bar-Lev, Director, Office of the CTO, MEF.

“The PoCs are always a highlight for our annual event, and I’m extremely excited about what we have in store for MEF19. This year’s Showcase will provide invaluable insight that enterprises, service providers, and technology companies need to successfully navigate on their digital transformation journey.”

The 2019 MEF 3.0 PoC Showcase participants and their demonstration themes include:

Colt Technology Services, PCCW Global, Sparkle, Tata Communications, Accedian Amartus, and Clear Blockchain Technologies: Standardization of Blockchain Billing and Settlement Utilizing MEF 3.0 Framework

PCCW Global, DCConnect Global, and R3: Automated Inter-Carrier Credit Ratings Using Blockchain

NTT Communications, ADVA, NEC/Netcracker, Silver Peak, Spirent Communications, and Versa Networks: Orchestrated Virtualized Multivendor SD-WAN Services

Comcast Business, Cox Business, Ciena, and Nokia Networks: MEF SOAM for High Value Multi-Operator Carrier Ethernet Services

Spectrum Enterprise, Equinix, Nefeli Networks, Nokia Networks, and Vitria: Intelligent, Intent-Based Network Scaling Using IoT Services

AT&T, Fortinet, and Nokia Networks: Slicing the Edge

CMC Networks, Intelsat, Nokia/Nuage Networks, Infovista, Cloudify, and Kontron: SD-WAN over Satellite Access

BT, ADVA, and Infovista with radio support from Accelleran, Attocore, and Radisys: Wholesale Network Slicing for 5G Access

Equinix, Unitas Global, and Ciena: AI-Driven Federated Domain Operations for Ultra Resilient Services

Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS), Fortinet, and Spirent Communications: Security Assurance in SD-WAN Application Flows (“The Protectors”)

CenturyLink, Telia Carrier, and Infinera: AI/ML and Policy Driven Networks for the LSO-Based Architecture

CenturyLink, Spirent Communications, and Versa Networks: SD-WAN Services and API Automated Certification

Amdocs and Cisco: Private Enterprise Networks

TELUS, Ekinops, and Inmanta: Multi-Domain Orchestration of MPLS, SD-WAN and Cloud Services

NTT Communications, NTT Labs, and Okinawa Open Laboratory: 5G xHaul Sharing as Slices with LSO Orchestration

MEF will be hosting a special MEF 3.0 PoC Awards Ceremony at 6:40pm – 7:00pm on Wednesday, 20 November, in the MEF19 Networking Hall. These awards will recognize leadership and innovation across multiple categories.

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith says the way the U.S. government is treating Huawei is un-American. As far as he knows, China’s leading maker of networking equipment and mobile phones should be allowed to buy U.S. technology, including software from his company.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to fine Facebook $5 billion over privacy violations from the Cambridge Analytica scandal as well as a $100 million penalty by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for releasing misleading information about user data.

Notwithstanding the highest ever fine imposed on the tech giant, the FTC said that Facebook will also have to submit new sweeping restrictions and a newly modified corporate structure which aims to hold the company accountable for their decision regarding the privacy of its users.

The FTC issued a new 20-year settlement in an effort to avoid another potential situation where Facebook deceives its users about their privacy. The settlement order will reform the way the company makes its decisions about privacy through encouraging greater transparency and holding the tech behemoth responsible through several levels and channels of compliance.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stated, “The next focus for our company is to build privacy protections as strong as the best services we provide. I’m committed to doing this well and delivering the best private social platform for our community.”

The $5 billion fine accounts for around 9% of the tech company’s 2018 revenue.

In fact, the decisions came amidst Facebook’s announcement of its second quarter earnings. The company’s stock experienced a 2% decrease during this quarter in the pre-market trading.

After the fines were made official, Zuckerberg said, “Just as we have an audit committee of our board to oversee our financial controls, we’ll set up a new privacy committee of our board that will oversee our privacy program. We’ve also asked one of our most experienced product leaders to take on the role of Chief Privacy Officer for Products.”

US chipmaking giant Qualcomm has been fined 242 million euros by the EU for an antitrust violation.

The fine is the second penalty imposed on the company by Brussels, the previous fine being 997 million euros back in 2018.

“Our investigation found that Qualcomm abused” its dominant position in the market between mid-2009 and mid-2011 by “engaging in predatory pricing,” read the statement issued by the EU.

According to the EU’s case, the chips in question are “key components so that mobile devices can connect to the internet” and that “Qualcomm sold these products at a price below cost to key customers with the intention of eliminating a competitor,” said EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

The EU also stated that Qualcomm sold chipsets to Huawei and ZTE, strategic customers which are Chinese tech giants, “with the intention of eliminating Icera, its main rival”.

Qualcomm said in a statement that it would appeal this decision as a means of exposing “the meritless nature” of it.

The EU fine, according to the chipmaking giant’s General Counsel, Don Rosenberg, is “unsupported by the law, economic principles or market facts, and we look forward to a reversal on appeal.”

Rosenberg added that the Chinese tech giants chose Qualcomm because “rival chipsets were technologically inferior”.

Qualcomm was also recently fined in Korea and Taiwan for antitrust concerns. In fact, the chipmaker finalized a two-year-long legal battle with Apple over royalties.

Trump has criticized Vestager’s cases against US tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Apple. In fact, Google was previously given 3 major fines from the European Commission amounting to a total of 8.25 billion euros.

As governments around the world struggle to come to terms with the initial banning of Huawei products by US President Donald Trump and the whiplash of his subsequent decision to lift it, Malaysia has taken a firm stance by choosing not to rush blindly into judgment, preferring to approach the subject of 5G cybersecurity in a liberal manner instead of pandering to the West’s seemingly baseless accusations towards the Chinese telecommunications colossus.

According to the Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is currently working on a report known as the 5G Testbed and Trials to ensure a comprehensive plan for high-speed internet deployment in the country. The outcome of these trials, which will be facilitated by the MCMC from April to October of this year, will then establish whether or not a ban on Huawei’s 5G technology is absolutely necessary to protect Malaysia’s cybersecurity interests.

In his keynote speech at the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce Digital Innovation Conference in Kuala Lumpur in March, Gobind said, “As the nation is enhancing footprints in digital economy development, and with the advent of the newest technologies, we must take into consideration the cyber threat concern and risks. Cybersecurity will be one of the most pressing issues of our time.”

The MCMC has stated that it would take “a broad look at the security compliance issues surrounding 5G” and, despite the commotion surrounding Huawei, it maintains that it is “not focused on any specific supplier.”

“5G will present new opportunities that at the same time open the door to a new set of risks,” a representative of MCMC said. “However, the MCMC is currently collaborating with the National Cyber Security Agency [NACSA] to engage with all mobile operators and equipment suppliers involved in 5G, aimed at identifying the risks to national security and to manage them accordingly.”

Security threats from the utilization of 5G is also being thoroughly reviewed and established by the Malaysian Armed Forces, which will present its findings to the government for further analysis.

The Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has previously spoken out against Trump’s policy, outwardly criticizing the US President for what he believes are attempts to secure dominance over China in terms of trade and security. During a recent trip to Japan, Mahathir made it clear that Malaysia will not be following Trump’s lead anytime soon, stating that the country tries to “make use of their [Huawei] technology as much as possible” and snubbed any concerns that it poses security issues within Malaysia.

Malaysia is considered one of the top three ASEAN nations which will be contributing 75% of the cybersecurity market share in the next five years. This in itself demonstrates the immense opportunity and potential the country has in advancing its cybersecurity industry.

US technology behemoth Apple could be one of the main targets for China as they look to retaliate and respond to the US campaign against Huawei by Washington.

High profile US Democrat Nancy Pelosi has launched a blistering attack on Facebook for refusing to block the sharing of a video of her that was doctored to make it look like she was drunk.

The World Economic Forum launched six Industry 4.0 Councils on Wednesday to aid policymakers and enterprises in leveraging emerging technologies whilst anticipating the social risks that could result from them.

Chinese telecommunications conglomerate Huawei has stepped up its legal battle in the United States by filing a lawsuit which is requesting that a US court overturn a federal ban that has been imposed on the company.