A test performed by so-called ‘Ethical Hackers’ in partnership with the Higher Education Policy Institute found that the hackers could get through the cyber-defences of 50 major universities – and considering the sector saw 1,000 major cyber-attacks in 2017/18 this ability to access highly valuable information was shocking.

According to the report’s authors, HEPI and JISCO, the hacking team managed with 100% success to get through the cyber defences of 50 universities cyber infrastructure and managed to access sensitive information. This so-called “penetration testing” experience saw top universities hit simultaneously and in waves in order to test on the on-going cyber security experience.

The BBC reported:

“The Oversight Board advises that it will be difficult to appropriately risk manage future products in the context of UK deployments, until Huawei’s software engineering and cyber security processes are remediated. The Oversight Board currently has not seen anything to give it confidence in Huawei’s ability to bring about change via its transformation programme and will require sustained evidence of better software engineering and cyber security quality verified by HCSEC and NCSC.”