Chinese Firm in Telcos, No Threat to Nat’l Security

Officials on Tuesday assured that the entry of a Chinese firm, as well as Chinese equipment, in the telecommunications industry does not pose a threat to cybersecurity or even national security for that matter.

The assurance was made by Acting Information and Communications Technology Secretary Eliseo Rio and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. during a hearing by the Senate’s public services committee on the third telecommunications operator in the country.

The hearing was conducted by the Senate panel chaired by Senator Grace Poe after national security and legal issues were raised against Mislatel, which was named as the provisional new major player in the telco industry.

Mislatel is 40-percent owned by state-owned China Telecom, with the rest held by businessman Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp and Chelsea Logistics.

During the hearing, Rio pointed out that Chinese equipment is already in the country but does not pose a threat to national security.

He said Globe and PLDT, in their disclosures to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), admitted that up to 80 percent of their equipment came from Huawei.

“Chinese equipment are already in our country, already in our telecommunications network. If the Mislatel consortium came out with their network, it will be with the same equipment that Globe and Smart have,” Rio said.

However, Rio stressed that safeguards are in place to ensure that this would not be a threat to cybersecurity.
“The new major player is required to submit to the NTC a detailed description that shows its networks and facilities will not compromise national security and shall abide (by) the National Cybersecurity Plan as part of its rollout plan,” he said.

The rollout plan is one of the requirements that Mislatel would have to submit within a 90-day period before a license to operate and the frequencies that they will use would be awarded to them.

Rio said Mislatel is also required to come up with a cybersecurity audit, to be done by a third party, to assure the government and the people that their network would never be used or will not be a source of national security breaches.

Meanwhile, he said the National Cybersecurity Plan further ensures that Mislatel and the two existing major players are cybersecurity compliant.

Cybersecurity Plan 2022, issued on May 2, 2017, has four key imperatives: protection of critical information infrastructure; protection of government network; protection of the nation’s supply chain; and protection of the individual.

“My point is that we have now a department that looks into this. We are building up the necessary infrastructure and in fact with the help of our National Security Adviser, we can really assure the public that we will be cybersecurity compliant,” Rio said.

Esperon, meanwhile, assured the Senate panel that the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) is using the 90-day period to run a background check on Mislatel.

This was after Poe asked him if he was aware of reports that China Telecom allegedly hijacked and rerouted 15 percent of the world’s web traffic into its own servers for 18 minutes.

“We have read about that before and it is subject to validation on our part. We have the 90-day period to do that,” Esperon said.

Asked if it would affect their decision if the allegations were found out to be true, Esperon said, “It may, it may not because there are technical ways of countering that.”

Esperon also sought to belie perceptions that China is the country’s main threat to cybersecurity.

“Why is it when China won, it seemed to me that we suddenly have this kind of threat,” he said.

“Paano kung iba nanalo? (What if somebody else won) Like Spanish or what? We still face the same problems on cybersecurity. It is up to us,” Esperon said.

In an interview after the hearing, he added that the private sector should also do their share to safeguard critical information.

“As a security man, I am always in the belief that there is no impenetrable barrier. But we can always establish barriers so that evil intentions can’t hurt us,” he said.

“You will put firewalls, passwords. Don’t use your phone for classified communication. Use encrypted groups. If you don’t put security measures, it will definitely be breached if the enemy intends to penetrate your defenses,” Esperon said. (PNA)