A flagship store of Huawei Photo: VCG

Chinese technology giant Huawei released a media statement refuting a recent Bloomberg report alleging the Chinese company infiltrated an Australian telecom network with malware in 2012, involving "Chinese spies".

"The Bloomberg report is an impressive act of journalistic contortionism," Huawei said in a statement published on Monday, emphasizing that this is the first time for the company to hear such "a fairly headline-worthy event" during its nearly 20 years of operation in Australia.

The two Australian telecom operators -- Optus and TPG -- have already publicly denied the alleged accusation. 

The Bloomberg report accused Huawei of using a malicious code hidden in a software update installed on a major Australian telecom company's network, which reprogrammed the infected equipment to record all communications and send the data to China, and the malware later self-destructed and erased itself. 

The report meanwhile stated that China's spy services were involved in the attack, citing multiple politicians and former government officials. 

Huawei claimed that its equipment does not have malware, and its software packages include mechanisms to prevent software updates from tampering actions. 

Moreover, the company stressed that operators own and manage networks, and Huawei is just a provider with no means of accessing operators' networks without the operators' prior permission. Operators have strict security verification processes for installing software and patches, the company stated.

Huawei said that it always welcomes scrutiny from governments, customers, and other stakeholders within the security ecosystem for systematic review and feedback, while reiterating that there has been no concrete evidence of Huawei engaging in malicious cyber-activity, despite ongoing efforts from the outside to intentionally allege wrongdoing by the Chinese high-tech company.  

Global Times