19th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum – The dual use of AI –   Possibilities and risks, legal regulation, cybersecurity, 5G

Mr. Strand began his remarks by stating that telecommunications are essential and vital in our society. In the coming years, the cloud will be fully integrated with 5G. On that note, the Chinese government owned and military aligned firms provide many products and services across the network and infrastructure. This is concerning because of technical vulnerabilities (backdoors, kill switches which can be illicitly installed in the equipment) as well as illegal and unethical Chinese government government practices including surveillance, human rights violation, and so on.  A kill switch is a force operation designed to shut down network, device, or piece of software. Circuits can be enabled with a kill switch which can trigger a shutdown of the device in which they are embedded or in other parts of the equipment. The Chinese government could use a kill switch to shut down networks or equipment in retaliation for Taiwan or other disputes. For more information please look at this research note: All countries should have at least one mobile network free from Chinese tech like Huawei and ZTE and this research note: Yesterday the White House, UK government and European Union simultaneous published statements calling for China to stop cyberattacks. What is the impact for the telecom industry?