Huawei, considered a security risk by the US, receives Hungary's first cybersecurity certificate

Huawei Technologies Hungary Kft. has become the first company in Hungary to receive an IoT cybersecurity certificate for its residential inverters, the Authority for the Supervision of Regulated Activities (SZTFH) has announced. The IoT (Internet of Things, i.e. mainly smart home devices) certification covers the company's solar-powered inverters and energy storage devices, a sector in which Huawei is a market leader in Hungary.

When commenting on the certification, SZTFH President László Nagy emphasized the stringency of the procedure. According to the agency's statement, the purpose of the procedure is to ensure that the product is checked in several stages from a cybersecurity perspective ensuring that it is designed, manufactured, and serviced in a transparent manner.

As reported previously, out of the two assessment organizations listed on the SZTFH website in relation to the cyber certification of IoT devices, the company called Hunguard, which is closely associated with Antal Rogán (Viktor Orbán's Cabinet Minister), obtained a "high" reliability rating. The SZTFH announcement does not specify who performed Huawei's compliance assessment, but Hunguard likely played a significant role in the process.

Huawei's certification is particularly interesting because, due to its ties to the Chinese state, many Western countries see the Chinese company's expansion as a national security risk, fearing cyberattacks and espionage, among other things. Huawei has repeatedly denied these allegations and has even challenged them in court, but even a former CIA director has claimed that the company is spying for the Chinese government, and there have even been cases where Chinese agents were exposed during operations.

Due to the risks, most European countries have been replacing Huawei with other contractors (e.g., Sweden's Ericsson) when building their 5G networks. Hungary, on the other hand, has been strengthening its relationship with the Chinese tech giant and has repeatedly stood by the company. Last May, Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the US Senate at the time, sharply criticized the Orbán government for maintaining good relations with the United States' strategic and economic rivals, specifically mentioning Huawei by name. "A NATO government that fawns over a Russian neo-Soviet imperialist…A European nation that rolls out the red carpet for greater predation, coercion, and espionage from a communist regime…" McConnell said at the time.

For several years now – partly due to the risks posed by Huawei –, the European Union has been working hard to create and implement a new cybersecurity framework, so that member states can take coordinated and more effective action against cyber threats in a uniform manner. Hungary was among the first countries to begin developing the necessary legal framework for this. The SZTFH was then designated as the authority responsible for overseeing cybersecurity rules.

During the Chinese President's latest visit to Hungary, we were able to ask Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán some questions related to national security in light of the country's cooperation with China becoming increasingly closer: