It accelerates the push on digital data security among the major players, including foreign ones, operating in Italy. Huawei Italia today inaugurated its Cyber Security Transparency Center in Rome, the fourth of the Chinese IT giant after those already operating in Banbury (United Kingdom), Bonn, Dubai, Toronto, Dongguan and Brussels. The Center, officially announced last September, is already available and operational at the Huawei headquarters in Rome, in a dedicated area protected by the most sophisticated security measures. During the presentation of the Center – attended by John Suffolk, Huawei Global Cyber Security and Privacy Officer, and Luigi De Vecchis, President of Huawei Italy – Huawei explained that the Center provides government agencies, technical experts, sector associations and standardization bodies , a platform for security communications, collaboration and innovation on security standards and verification mechanisms, enabling our customers to perform security audits and test Huawei equipment. And during the online event, representatives of telecommunications operators, regulatory authorities and the academic world also took part in discussing and discussing cybersecurity issues. To open the works was Massimo Bugani, Head of the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi with responsibility for Innovation.
The new Center “complements the strategy of Huawei which is proudly the only company in the world to open its entire patent portfolio through source code” ela new facility “is part of Huawei’s global investment in cybersecurity which appears to be the highest in the sector, amounting to 5% of the company’s investment in research and development, with an average of 750 million dollars per year “was underlined by Huawei which also pointed out that 2% of engineers of Huawei, which has over 190,000 employees, specializes in cyber security, compared to 1% of the industry average.
Intervendo al webinar, John Suffolk, Huawei Global Cyber Security and Privacy Officer, he stressed that he had hoped for “in
a series of national laws to raise the level of trust in technology which – he observed – improves the lives of citizens and is what we must put at the base “.” We have much higher standards but, instead of have a harmonization of standards“between the various countries and the various players, “everyone wants to have their own way” and “so we have a fragmentation of standards. We have more certifications but not better ones: it is an East-West problem of the world” Suffolk stressed. Huawei’s manager also confirmed that 5G will cover half of China over the next five years “ and remarked how Huawei always wants to “collaborate with its users-customers” also by adapting the company’s standards “to the requests of the countries in which we work”. “We are among the few in the world that do this, the laws are still linked to an analogue and offline world and there is a great debate related to large platforms such as Amazon, Goolge or Facebook, some have moved on but – due to the fragmentation of standards – we have more ‘mistrust’ and no more faith in technology “highlighted Suffolk.
Also Luigi De Vecchis, president of Huawei Italia, highlighted that “the security of sensitive data and resilience to network breaches is an integral part of Huawei’s commitments”. “Dedicated investments are the clearest evidence of this” marked Huawei’s number one in Italy. De Vecchis also remarked that “the digitalization of the economy and the technologies that favor it such as Ai, the wide use of IoT, Cloud, Virtual Reality and, last but not least, Edge Computing, represent on the one hand a great opportunity for growth of the economy and, on the other hand, expose the country’s sensitive infrastructures to a high risk “.
“In these situations – observed the president of Huawei Italia- safety cannot be talked about without a sound approach based on scientific rigor, providing evidence and concrete evidence, and not on unfounded speculations “. The problem must be faced according to De Vecchis,” jointly, operators, vendors and institutions; we cannot overlook facts such as GSMA’s commitment with 3gpp and Nesas on network security and on the tests carried out on telecommunications technology suppliers “.” Our Cyber Security Transparency Center is part of the strategy we have been following for many years and today, with the inauguration of this Center, we aim to provide a constructive environment in which to demonstrate our openness, spirit of collaboration
and transparency, helping to build a digital and safe Italy together with our customers and partners “finally assured De Vecchis.
Commenting with the time.news the opening of the new Huawei center, Giuseppe Bianchi, Professor of Network Security at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, he stressed that “it is certainly an important initiative and I am absolutely in favor of all initiatives that lead to maximum openness, but, in my opinion, this is only a beginning” and “Huawei should expand the opening more strongly towards centers non-profit academics “. “Third-party academic groups could lend a big hand both in terms of security and to fill the impressive skill gap that we record in Italy in the cybersecurity sector” argued Bianchi recalling the data “of the study conducted by the Italian Tommaso De-Zan dell ‘University of Oxford which shows that 80% of national small and medium-sized companies cannot find candidates “.
The Cyber Security Transparency Center in Rome focuses on two main areas: Knowledge Sharing and Verification and Testing. On the first point, Huawei explained that the Center illustrates Huawei’s end-to-end cyber security practices for security and privacy; from strategies and the supply chain to research and development, to products and solutions. It will give customers the opportunity to experience innovation trends, use cases of emerging technologies (5G verticals, quantum computing, AI, IoT) and related cyber security challenges. The Rome Center, Huawei explained again, offers the opportunity to collaborate on a sector-wide model based on the principles of reliability and scrupulous defense, to develop cyber security programs in order to prevent, detect and react proactively to threats. The new Center also provides a facility for carrying out workshops, training courses and events in collaboration with the Italian IT security community and sector.
Regarding verification and testing, Huawei has ensured that the Center is open to independent third-party customers and certification bodies. They will be invited to perform security tests and audits “fair, objective and independent, according to industry-recognized IT security standards and best practices,” said the Chinese ICT giant. Finally, the new structure in Rome, equipped with dedicated test environments, which provide Huawei products, software, technical documentation, test tools and the necessary technical support. For Huawei customers, the Shenzhen-based company clarified, “it will be possible to perform additional checks such as source code review and hardware design check.”