Kenya Insights

Tag: Huawei

  • Russian Parliament Plans To Ban Apple Products From Next Year

    Russian Parliament Plans To Ban Apple Products From Next Year

    According to a report by BBC, the Russian Parliament has passed new legislation for electronics that run apps to have pre-installed Russian software.

    According to new the bill, electronics such as smartphones, computers, and smart TVs must be sold with locally-made Russian software pre-installed. This means apart from the first-party software, the devices should have Russian alternatives pre-installed in order to qualify for their sale to avoid being banned in the country.

    The new law will be effective from July 2020. This might lead to a ban on not only Apple iPhones but also other products with foreign software. Inside the Russian parliament Photo|Al Jazeera

    The European Union has a similar law which has made Android OEMs to let users select their choice of apps while setting up the device. In this case, Apple, Samsung, and other major electronics manufacturers may choose not to sell their devices in the Russian Federation instead of having to install varied software.

    As the Kremlin prepares to roll out the list of every gadget that will need to be updated, it is not physically possible to install Russian-made software on all devices. A move the Federal Government says will attract manufacturers from the Russian market.

    “When we buy complex electronic devices, they already have individual applications, mostly Western ones, pre-installed on them. Naturally, when a person sees them… they might think that there are no domestic alternatives available. And if alongside pre-installed applications, we will also offer the Russian ones to users, then they will have a right to choose.” Oleg Nikolayev, one of the co-authors of the legislation said.

    According to the Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Electrical Household and Computer Equipment (RATEK), it is not possible for many worldwide companies to install Russian-made software which means they will be forced to exit the market.

    Apple’s iOS operating system is a closed system, it isn’t likely that the iPhone would be offered with unknown Russian software pre-loaded. Russia has slapped the smartphone giants off their markets.

    Statcounter data report released early last month indicates that Samsung has the largest smartphone market share in Russia with 22.04 percent. China’s Huawei has a 15.99 percent market dominance then Apple’s iPhone with a market share of 15.83 percent.

    This is coming at a time when the Kremlin had passed another controversial law. Two weeks ago, they legislated an Internet Law which enabled officials with the power to restrict internet traffic creating an internet firewall like the one in China.

  • Most Unsafe Gadget Huawei Suffers 1Million Cyber-attacks Daily

    Most Unsafe Gadget Huawei Suffers 1Million Cyber-attacks Daily

    You remember when the late Jacob Juma was murdered and investigations into his gruesome death led by the former CID now DCI boss Ndegwa Muhoro launched that never clearly yielded something? Nairobi’s CCTV cameras apparently failed to capture the most important video details of the murder that has remained a blame game to this very date. Huawei CCTV that costed Kenyans billions of shillings and almost zero benefits, to say the least, was at the center of all that.

    Away from that, the Chinese tech giant Huawei stomachs more than a million cyberattacks per day on its computers and networks.  China’s under fire Huawei security chief, John Suffolk has confirmed this.

    According to Suffolk most of the attacks are focused on IP-theft, and Huawei, which leads the world for 5G network innovation and files more patents than any other company, has accused the U.S. government of mounting cyberattacks as part of its concerted campaign against them.

    Last month, Huawei alleged in the media that; “The U.S. law enforcement has threatened, coerced and enticed existing and former employees, and has executed cyberattacks to infiltrate Huawei’s intranet and internal information systems.”

    Suffolk, however, did not attribute the attacks to any country or particular threat actor and did not confirm whether they were from nation-states or competitors. He, however, acknowledged that although almost all attacks are defended, some attacks on older systems get through.

    “Cyberattacks have included a type of theft of confidential information by sending a computer virus by email.” Reads Huawei’s report

    Such phishing or business email often rely on social engineering to trick employees into installing malware disguised as attachments, or visiting fake sites or viewing social media clips that are laced with harmful code.

    Suffolk used the media to confirm his claims that although Huawei is battling its own allegations around cybersecurity, vulnerable to intelligence tasking by Beijing within overseas markets—either to steal or disrupt. Suffolk told the media that if the company’s CEO Ren Zhengfei was ever asked to compromise the company, he would blankly refuse to do that if he was pressurized to do that, he would close the company down.

    Last week, the EU report warned that the combination of new technologies and 5G networks risks hostile state control of critical infrastructure, logistics, transportation even law enforcement. Even though the report failed to openly mention China or Huawei, but did reference sole 5G suppliers from countries with poor democratic standards, which clearly means Huawei and China was the reference.