China's technology giant Huawei has asked some of the world's best hackers to attend a secret meeting in Munich later this month as the company tries to attract the attention of global governments, according to a report by TechCrunch.
At the meeting scheduled for Nov. 16, Huawei will offer a program for rewards for finding errors in its phones, which will allow researchers to get financial rewards for finding vulnerabilities, sources said.
The sources added that the error reward program will focus on current and future mobile devices, in addition to the new operating system of the mobile phone Harmony OS (HarmonyOS) developed by Huawei to be a replacement of the Android system of Google.
Other phone manufacturers - including Apple, Google and Samsung - are using reward programs to find vulnerabilities in their devices.
A political program of a political nature
The move comes at a time of increased pressure on Huawei because of its ties with the Chinese government. The company denied the US-led allegations that it might be forced to spy on behalf of Beijing, but that did not stop the federal government from imposing sanctions and obstacles to its work in the United States.
This pressure has prompted companies such as Google to withdraw support for Huawei Android system, which depends on the Chinese company in its phones, prompting them to find or build alternatives.
Huawei, which also manufactures communications network equipment, was criticized by the UK authorities earlier this year for failing to address "serious and systematic flaws" in its software as it tries to prove that its technology does not pose a threat to national security.
While Huawei is trying to win the world's trust in its products, one source described the event as similar to a secret meeting hosted by Apple in August, where the technology giant handed over the most famous security researchers to iPhones especially to detect security vulnerabilities and find any software errors in it.
The source said the Huawei meeting was probably a way to demonstrate the company's willingness to work with hackers and security researchers to enhance the security of its products.