Vodafone identified Huawei security flaw years before Western govts did

British telecoms group Vodafone tackled a security flaw with Huawei technology a decade ago, it was revealed Tuesday amid widespread concerns over the Chinese giant developing 5G networks abroad.

Bloomberg reported that Vodafone, Europe’s biggest mobile phone company, identified hidden so-called backdoors in software that could have handed Huawei unauthorized access to the carrier’s fixed-line network in Italy used to connect to the internet.

The financial news wire cited Vodafone’s security briefing documents from 2009 and 2011.

Vodafone told Bloomberg that the issues were resolved, while responding to the report, Huawei said in a statement: “We were made aware of historical vulnerabilities in 2011 and 2012 and they were addressed at the time. Software vulnerabilities are an industry-wide challenge.”