By marshalling the collective power of its allies, the U.S. may have finally found a model for imposing costs on cyber adversaries.
An
in Canada.
in Poland. Government bans in
,
, and
. Corporate snubs and ostracism in
,
,
. The
of purchase orders by one of the world’s largest wireless providers. And now a
by the U.S. Justice Department. It has been a bad few months for Chinese telecommunication titan Huawei. Unleashing the collective power of its democratic allies, the United States may have finally found the formula for imposing real costs on its cyber adversaries.
The indictment unsealed on Jan. 28 alleges that Huawei willfully violated U.S. sanctions on Iran and repeatedly lied to U.S. financial institutions and federal authorities about Huawei’s business in Iran. The sanctions violations began in 2007 and continued after investigative reporters revealed Huawei’s
in
abuses in Iran and its transfer of
to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions and export controls. Reporting earlier this year revealed that Huawei is also
.
A separate
unsealed the same day describes how “Huawei intentionally conspired to steal the intellectual property of an American company in an attempt to undermine the free and fair global marketplace,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. The indictment details a directed espionage campaign complete with
for employees who stole valuable trade secrets. This is not the first time the company has been
of
. In 2004, Huawei
claims for misappropriating and copying Cisco’s source code. Huawei
another case brought by Motorola in 2011.
The company has long been under
for ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. A 2012 Congressional
revealed a “potential pattern of unethical and illegal behavior by Huawei officials” and accused the company of
“special network services to an entity” believed “to be an elite cyber-warfare unit” of the People’s Liberation Army.
But where previous investigations and lawsuits appeared to make no measurable impact on the company’s growth, the new
by U.S. allies and
by Washington is beginning to take its toll. At Davos last month, Huawei Chairman Liang Hua admitted that the company may withdraw from countries where it
.
The synchronized steps by the United States and its allies against Huawei build on the diplomatic efforts earlier in the Trump administration to issue joint condemnations of
and
for the 2017
and
attacks, respectively. Attribution alone is not a cyber strategy, but it does communicate to U.S. adversaries that they cannot rely on the plausible deniability of cyber operations to avoid retaliation. Together, Washington and its allies can thwart that advantage.
...
