Information/Technology - 41. page

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the Chinese search engine giant Baidu reported a massive loss in its just-released first quarter financial report. The report indicated that Baidu suffered a net loss of RMB 327 million (around US$49 million) in the first quarter. Last year, in same time period, Baidu reported a net profit of RMB 6.694 billion (around US$967 million). This is the first time since Baidu went public in 2005 that it has reported a loss. Immediately after the report was released, its stock price dropped by 16 percent and reached a three and a half year low. Instantly, the market value shrank by US$8.7 billion. Baidu’s Sr. Vice President who is Chief of the Search Engine Business Group Xiang Hailong resigned at the same time that the report was released. Baidu’s search engine represents the company’s core business and enjoys a near monopoly position in China’s search market, with government backing as well as a Google ban. Market experts expressed their belief that, by examining reports from other similar companies, Baidu’s report indeed reflected the adjustments in the economy.

Source: Sina, May 19, 2019
http://finance.sina.com/gb/usstock/usstock_news/sinacn/2019-05-19/doc-ifzikfzn1690342.shtml

Epoch Times reported that the Dutch media recently revealed that mainland telecom giant Huawei has a “backdoor” into the network of a major Dutch telecommunications company, possibly in order to obtain customer information. According to a report the Dutch De Volkskrant published on the 16th, the Dutch intelligence and security agency AIVD is investigating whether China is conducting espionage. At the beginning of April, AIVD named China and Russia, warning the Dutch not to rely on the hardware and software equipment made by these two countries. It pointed out that China and Russia have adopted an aggressive network strategy against the Netherlands, jeopardizing the interests of the Netherlands.

According to Epoch Times, this is not the first time that Huawei was accused of installing a “backdoor” on its devices. At the end of April this year, Bloomberg broke the news that Vodafone, the world’s second-largest mobile operator, admitted that, a few years ago, it had discovered that the equipment supplied by Huawei to Vodafone’s Italian business had a backdoor. On March 29, the US technology website Lightreading reported that Microsoft engineers found the “backdoor” on Huawei laptops through the installed “Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection” used in Windows 10. On December 11, 2018, Fuji TV Japan quoted officials from the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party as saying that after disassembling Huawei equipment, the Japanese government discovered that there were “unnecessary parts” in the hardware. In 2017, a person who claimed to be an internal employee of Huawei disclosed in the social media that Huawei’s mobile phones and computers are equipped with spying software. In September 2015, the famous hacker media “The Hacker News” reported that G-Data, a security company from Germany, found that 26 Chinese-made smartphones, including Huawei, had pre-installed spyware in their firmware. In addition, Huawei is accused of having close ties with the Chinese authorities. It has actively participated in projects such as the Golden Shield Project and is the backbone enterprise for China’s Internet censorship and its national security monitoring system.

Source: Epoch Times, May 16, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/5/16/n11263097.htm

On May 11, a high school in Liuzhou City in China’s southwest Guangxi Province recommended that students purchase Huawei’s customized mobile phone, claiming that it can manage students’ mobile phone usage, automatically filter bad messages, and record student violations. According to photos that netizens provided, this customized version of the Huawei Nova4 mobile phone has a management platform that Huawei’s Wuhan Research Institute developed.

The phone has several major functions. It can manage students’ time by locking and unlocking the phone at different times, such as class time, lunch break, nightly bedtime, or holidays, so as to avoid students’ excessive usage. The system will also automatically filter 500 million pieces of “bad” website information related to pornography and violence. The school can distribute notices to students via its back-end, and if a student is given a “misconduct” in phone usage, the system will keep a record.

Although the high school’s deputy principal said that this was a recommendation at the request of parents and not a mandatory purchase, the news triggered heated discussion among Mainland netizens. Some people criticized Huawei for launching such a mobile phone at such a sensitive time. Some questioned, “Who gives Huawei the power to monitor the lives of others under the banner of serving the good of students?” Others joked that this is “buying and bringing ‘big brother’ home.”

Source: Central News Agency, May 13, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201905130106.aspx