 Huawei exec's lawyers open new front in extradition trial: report Vancouver (AFP) Dec 19, 2020 - Canada would violate international law by extraditing a Huawei executive to the United States, her lawyers argue in new documents cited by the Canadian public television channel CBC. Meng Wanzhou's defense believes that their client's alleged actions have "no connection" with the US, according to the CBC, which cites new documents filed Friday in Vancouver court. Meng is wanted in the US on fraud charges related to violations of US sanctions on Iran. She is accused of hiding Huawei's relationship with former subsidiary Skycom in Iran from HSBC bank. The daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecom giant was arrested in 2018 at the Vancouver airport on a US warrant, causing a major diplomatic crisis between China and Canada. In their latest bid to halt her extradition, Meng's lawyers cite several experts in international law. They argue the US has no jurisdiction to charge a Chinese national for actions occurring outside the US and involving a non-US executive of a British bank. "There is no connection," say the lawyers quoted by CBC. "None of (Meng's) alleged conduct occurred in whole or in part in the U.S. or had any effect there." If Canada agreed to extradite her, it "would be complicit in breaching customary international law," her lawyers argue, according to the report. The new documents were presented after several weeks of testimony by Canadian police and customs officials before the Vancouver court. Meng's lawyers also claim that their client's rights were violated when she was arrested at the Vancouver airport and that sensitive information about her was passed on to the FBI, which Canada denies. The final hearings to determine whether Meng should be extradited are scheduled for next May.
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The European Commission said Saturday it had not found any computer system intrusion following revelations of a massive cyberattack on US government and other networks, but was "analysing the situation".
The EU executive "is aware of the global software supply chain cyber threat" via hacked software supplied by US tech company SolarWinds but " we have not detected any impact on our systems," a spokesman said.
An EU official told AFP that the Commission has "only one instance" of SolarWinds' software in its systems and "it was not impacted by the incident".
Microsoft said Thursday that its anti-virus defences found dozens of networked systems running the software had been compromised, most of them in the US but also in seven other countries including Belgium, home to the European Commission.
The US has blamed Russia for the cyberattack, but Moscow denies involvement.
NATO, which is also headquartered in Belgium, said it, too, was checking its systems, some of which use SolarWinds software, but had found "no evidence of compromise" so far.
SolarWinds said up to 18,000 customers, including government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, had downloaded compromised software updates, allowing hackers to spy on email exchanges.
NATO checking systems after US cyberattack
Brussels (AFP) Dec 19, 2020 -
NATO said Saturday it was checking its computer systems after a massive cyberattack on US government agencies and others that Washington blamed on Moscow.
"At this time, no evidence of compromise has been found on any NATO networks. Our experts continue to assess the situation, with a view to identifying and mitigating any potential risks to our networks," a NATO official told AFP.
Microsoft said Thursday its anti-virus software detected intrusions in dozens of networked systems, most of them in the United States, via software supplied by US tech company SolarWinds.
The NATO official said the Belgium-headquartered organisation used SolarWinds software in some of its systems.
"NATO also has cyber rapid reaction teams on standby to assist Allies 24 hours a day, and our Cyberspace Operations Centre is operational," said the official, who was not identified in line with NATO's policy.
Microsoft president Brad Smith in a blog post on Thursday said the hack was the most concerning of several "nation-state attacks" seen this year.
He added that, outside the US, networks in seven other countries were affected -- in Belgium, Britain, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Spain and the United Arab Emirates -- and "it's certain that the number and location of victims will keep growing".
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said "we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity".
Russia denied involvement.
SolarWinds said up to 18,000 customers, including government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, had downloaded compromised software updates, allowing hackers to spy on email exchanges.
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