4 ms·

Why wouldn’t Huawei just buy a switch? Why would the customer tolerate someone spending 10x longer on an install and taking apart all their other crap? For that

by woah 7y ago

Why wouldn’t Huawei just buy a switch? Why would the customer tolerate someone spending 10x longer on an install and taking apart all their other crap? For that matter why were they able to take apart the other switches at all? Wouldn’t that have taken the system down? Were they storing inactive equipment in their live rack? None of this makes a lot of sense.

xenospn 7y ago
Yeah, the only way I can see that happening is if there's a bunch of unused equipment in the room that you can take apart without unplugging - but since when do you let a bunch of foreign techs hang out in one of your server rooms by themselves? Not likely.
- jvanderbot 7y ago
  According to these guys, they'd come in to do an installation at 2-3AM (standard time for maintaining a cell network), but security was lax and they would be left to do their own thing mostly unsupervised. These were smaller shops that were later bought out by the big handful recognize today. They were dumb. Maybe they let it happen, but it takes two to tango. According to the particular story that I might be foggy on, the engineer responsible for the station and surrounding stations came in to check in on the installation unannounced, and the people on site were not really aware or concerned that they were in back working. The engineer found out what was going on, and everyone shrugged, saying that what harm could they do, etc etc.
jvanderbot 7y ago
I have no idea myself. Speculating, but at the top policy level, perhaps they did just that (why not?). At the field tech level, maybe they were photographing "just in case". Also, I assume by disassembling racks, they were cataloging which equipment was used, and its configuration. It's akin to snooping a competitors shop to see their process, as much as their equipment. Again, I'm foggy on details since I wasn't there, but these guys are not surprised by alleged IP theft and stories of incentivized theft after their experiences. I don't have the insight to think really hard about the motivations of the H techs, and this is just colloquial / anecdotal so don't expect yourself to be convinced.
ardy42 7y ago
> Why wouldn’t Huawei just buy a switch? Maybe they weren't allowed to? Telecom equipment isn't exactly mass market stuff you can anonymously buy at a local Best Buy, and a competitor would undoubtedly be squeamish selling direct to the compeition. If Huawei wanted to buy one, they'd probably need to do it through a front company. However, their IP-theft MO seems to be very opportunistic.

by woah 7y ago

xenospn 7y ago

Yeah, the only way I can see that happening is if there's a bunch of unused equipment in the room that you can take apart without unplugging - but since when do you let a bunch of foreign techs hang out in one of your server rooms by themselves? Not likely.

jvanderbot 7y ago
According to these guys, they'd come in to do an installation at 2-3AM (standard time for maintaining a cell network), but security was lax and they would be left to do their own thing mostly unsupervised. These were smaller shops that were later bought out by the big handful recognize today. They were dumb. Maybe they let it happen, but it takes two to tango. According to the particular story that I might be foggy on, the engineer responsible for the station and surrounding stations came in to check in on the installation unannounced, and the people on site were not really aware or concerned that they were in back working. The engineer found out what was going on, and everyone shrugged, saying that what harm could they do, etc etc.

jvanderbot 7y ago

I have no idea myself. Speculating, but at the top policy level, perhaps they did just that (why not?). At the field tech level, maybe they were photographing "just in case". Also, I assume by disassembling racks, they were cataloging which equipment was used, and its configuration. It's akin to snooping a competitors shop to see their process, as much as their equipment. Again, I'm foggy on details since I wasn't there, but these guys are not surprised by alleged IP theft and stories of incentivized theft after their experiences. I don't have the insight to think really hard about the motivations of the H techs, and this is just colloquial / anecdotal so don't expect yourself to be convinced.

ardy42 7y ago

> Why wouldn’t Huawei just buy a switch? Maybe they weren't allowed to? Telecom equipment isn't exactly mass market stuff you can anonymously buy at a local Best Buy, and a competitor would undoubtedly be squeamish selling direct to the compeition. If Huawei wanted to buy one, they'd probably need to do it through a front company. However, their IP-theft MO seems to be very opportunistic.