Venezuela President believes American spies can’t hack Huawei phones

During a press conference on Monday, Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro showed up a Huawei smartphone that China’s President Xi Jinping gave him, called it “the best phone in the world” and made a bold claim.

“The Americans can’t hack it, neither their spy aircraft nor their satellites,” Maduro said.

The phone looked like a Mate X6, a foldable phone released by Huawei in 2024.

Obviously, nothing is impossible to hack, and even less of US government hackers who are considered some of the best in the world.

An American -based vulnerability researcher told TechCrunch that because Huawei manufactures his own hardware as well as his own mobile operating system – Harmonyos – its devices are easier to hack.

“There are certainly many more errors in their brand new code than in iOS and Android at this time,” said the researcher, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive problems.

Harmonyos – like any software in the world – has had mistakes and needs regular security updates. In the case of the Mate X6, Huawei promises monthly security fixes, but also notes that “the number of unit models with monthly security updates can be changed. Certain airlines may only support updates quarterly.”

Last month alone, Huawei patched 60 bugs in Harmonyos, 13 of which were classified as “high severity” bugs.

Huawei recognizes that malware can get on its devices and has a site dedicated to helping customers who may have had their devices hacked.

Huawei did not respond to a request for comment.

There is a documented story of US government hackers aimed at Huawei. In 2014, documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA had hacked and hidden back door inside Huawei servers in China. The hack was so bad that NSA Spies came all the way into Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, which allowed them to spy on the company’s communication and get information about its products.

“Many of our goals communicate over Huawei-produced products,” the NSA document said, according to the New York Times. “We want to make sure we know how to utilize these products,” added it to “gain access to network of interest” worldwide.

Although it was in 2014, it is almost certain that the NSA, the US Cyber ​​Command and others have the mission of hacking Huawei devices and finding vulnerabilities in them for espionage purposes. There are probably US government employees whose only job is to hack Huawei devices and systems. Earlier this year, the Chinese government accused the NSA of targeting Chinese critical infrastructure.