(CORRECTED: Removed Australian Department of Defence references.)
China's leading personal computer firm Lenovo was banned by intelligence agencies from providing kit to top secret associations and networks. The prohibition was caused by studies suggesting that Lenovo's back doors were vulnerable to attacks and prone to security lapses.
The British secret agency, which remained anonymous in their reports, validated the written ban which was handed to the Chinese firm almost 10 years ago. According to the same report, backdoor vulnerabilities in both firmware and hardware proved to be a risk to these secret networks. Attackers could possible access these computers remotely with little detection.
This ban was adopted by the "Five Eyes Alliance" comprised of several intelligence agencies, amongst them the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.
The report added to the intelligence industry's distrust of Chinese produced technologies. In the past, the United States Congress reported that Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE's products posed national risk.
Analysts believe that the government testing was not shared to the private sector, seeing that shares and sales of Lenovo were growing. Lenovo is also among the global leader in personal computer manufacturing. The Chinese company gained a valuable amount of shares in the global smartphone market. Tech followers believe that the demand for cheaper smartphones will propell the company's growth in the near future.
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