Huawei to invest $2 billion in cybersecurity over the next five years

Chinese vendor Huawei announced plans to invest $2 billion over the next five years to focus on cybersecurity, international press reported the company’s rotating chairman Ken Hu as saying this week at a press conference.Hu said that most of the investment will be used to hire additional people in this field as well as upgrading lab facilities.The executive also urged governments enacting bans on Chinese equipment to show evidence of the alleged security threats. Hu added that any concerns or allegations on security issues should be based on factual evidence. “Without factual evidence we don’t accept and we oppose those allegations,” the executive reportedly said.He added that the vendor has been communicating with governments worldwide in a move to disperse security concerns.“When it comes to security, we need to let the facts speak for themselves, Huawei’s record on security is clean.” Over 30 years, the company has never had a serious cyber security issue or seen any evidence showing its equipment is a security threat: “We have a solid track record,” Hu said during a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China. Hu also highlighted that Huawei has to be proactive with governments, local communities and its customers. “As technology becomes more complex and networks become more open, we will continue to increase our investment in security related efforts,” he said.Hu said Huawei had already secured over 25 commercial contracts for 5G, slightly above the 22 the Chinese technology giant had announced last month.Huawei has shipped more than 10,000 5G base stations, he said, adding that Huawei expects revenue to exceed $100 billion this year – up 8.7% from last year.A number of countries including the United States, Australia and New Zealand have raised security concerns about the deployment of Huawei’s 5G core networks.