Chinese smartphone giant Huawei has invited a number of the world’s best phone hackers to a secret meeting in Munich on 16 November in a bid to secure recognition by global governments, per a report by TechCrunch. The company hasn't yet commented on the subject.
Huawei is understood to be ready to privately lay out a new bug programme, which would stimulate researchers’ submitting security vulnerabilities by means of financial rewards, with similar bug bounty programmes having been introduced by Huawei’s competitors, including Apple, Samsung, and Google long ago.
A cited unnamed source likened the event to a secret meeting hosted by Apple in August, when the tech giant handed its most outstanding researching special “dev” iPhones , specially tailored to hack and trace security blemishes.
The source went on to assume that Huawei’s bounty programme and respective meeting were likely a way to show governments that it’s set to work with hackers and security researchers to guarantee greater security of its products, following a tense row with Washington.
The US earlier blacklisted Huawei, banning it from doing business with American firms following allegations that the company was operating at Beijing’s behest and posed a threat to national security.
Huawei, along with Beijing, have on multiple occasions denied the claims the tech giant could be spying for the Chinese government, but the US proceeded to slap on sanctions.
The move led companies like Google to pull their support for Android, the platform that Huawei bases its smartphones on, and prompting the tech titan to seek alternatives, including sweeping work on the promising 5G network.
As of today, the Chinese company is a top provider of 5G equipment and has reportedly struck over 50 commercial 5G contracts around the world despite being barred from some major industrial markets such as Japan and Australia in the wake of US-imposed limitations.
Despite the ongoing debate over Huawei and its security policies, the company has reportedly boosted its revenue by 24% in the past few months.