As Nortel files for bankruptcy... a less-discussed factor may have scuttled the struggling networking company's last hope for a savior: concerns over Chinese cyberspying...
The most interested potential acquirer of the Ethernet division may have been Chinese company Huawei... The Shenzhen-based networking giant has a murky history of cooperation with its homeland's authoritarian regime, and concerns over Huawei's government ties, according to some industry-watchers and security analysts, may have spooked Nortel's customers that carried sensitive U.S. government data and scuttled the Chinese company's offer...
The Chinese company has long been searching for an opportunity to expand to North America...
Given Huawei's history, a tie-up with the company would raise the specter of a hidden back door in a router or switch, siphoning that data to foreign spies. (more)
