In May 2022, the Trudeau government (finally!) made the necessary decision: to ban Huawei from the construction of Canadian 5G networks, the fifth generation of mobile communications.
Another Chinese company, ZTE, is also hit by the ban.
At the time, three of Canada’s four allies in the Five Eyes network, an intelligence-sharing grouping, banned Huawei from their own networks long ago: the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. The other member, New Zealand, did not formally ban the company, but closed the door to all contracts nonetheless.
The fear of these countries: electronic espionage.
Why did you block Huawei and ZTE, but not Lenovo, another Chinese company?
First, let’s clarify one thing: the Canadian government has prevented Huawei from participating in the development of its Canadian 5G infrastructures, but it has not banned its consumer devices.
On its Canadian site, Best Buy offers no less than 78 different Huawei brand mobile phones. There’s nothing stopping you from buying one and using it. It should be noted, however, that Google applications, including the Play Store, do not work due to commercial restrictions imposed by the US government. Huawei has developed its own platforms to replace those of Google.
Knowing this, it is not so surprising that Lenovo is allowed to sell its tablets and laptops here.
Fyscillia Ream, scientific coordinator of the Research Chair in Cybercrime Prevention at the University of Montreal, explains that there are other reasons why people are more wary of Huawei than Lenovo.
“An important aspect is that Huawei produces components for military devices, while this is less true for Lenovo”, underlines the expert.
“The other peculiarity is that the microchips used by Huawei are manufactured by the company itself, while those of Lenovo are produced by multinationals”, continues Mr.me Rem. This makes Huawei all the more suspicious.
Lenovo’s entire notebook division, which includes ThinkPad products, was acquired from IBM in 2005.
That being said, the reflex to be wary of Lenovo devices is far from outlandish.
In 2008, the US Navy discovered that its Lenovo laptops were copying information and sending it to China. Since then, it has completely banned all devices of this brand.
In 2019, the US Department of Defense’s Inspector General identified devices from Lenovo and Lexmark, another Chinese company, as “known cybersecurity risks”.
In an article published in the magazine Newsweek, retired US Major General James Marks recently issued a warning about Chinese electronics. He recalled that since 2017, a Chinese law obliges any company in this country to cooperate with the Chinese government and to provide it with any information requested.1.
According to him, we should also be wary of Chinese companies Hikvision (video surveillance devices) and DJI (drones).
“The trend seems to go towards banning Lenovo devices,” said expert Fyscillia Ream.
However, this is not the case in Canada. While Ottawa and Quebec have banned their employees from downloading the Chinese application TikTok on all government-issued devices, there is no ban on Lenovo devices for government employees.
“The Government of Canada does not currently prohibit the use of Lenovo products,” the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), a federal agency, confirmed to us.
“When we assess the risk associated with a piece of IT (information technology) equipment, we focus on the technology under review rather than the country of origin of the supplier. We approach assessments from an individual perspective to ensure we provide the best advice and guidance on a case-by-case basis.
So, should we be wary of Lenovo devices?
“It depends on how we use it,” replies Fyscillia Ream. If you work for the government, the precautions must be greater. But considering the current political context, it is always better not to buy Chinese devices, because of the risk of data collection. »