Vodafone identified security vulnerabilities in Huawei equipment a decade ago

British multinational telecommunications conglomerate Vodafone revealed on Tuesday that it found security flaws in equipment supplied by China's Huawei to its Italian business a decade ago. The company said that it had found security vulnerabilities in two products and that both incidents had been resolved quickly.

"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. Like every Information and Communications Technology vendor we have a well established public notification and patching process, and when a vulnerability is identified we work closely with our partners to take the appropriate corrective action," Huawei said in a statement.

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

Huawei, the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment, faces pushback in some Western markets over fears Beijing could spy on communications and gain access to critical infrastructure. The Chinese technology giant has announced sales of 5G networks to a handful of carriers and contracts with major carriers in Germany and other countries for field testing. The company says it already has shipped more than 40,000 5G base stations to customers.