Global digital transformation boom: How is Huawei driving cybersecurity innovation

Digital transformation is increasingly defining the realities of today’s world. This includes migrating data to the cloud, leveraging digital communication tools, and automating key operations.

According to Statista, global spending on digital transformation is projected to reach $2.5tn in 2024. By 2027, this figure is expected to grow to $3.9tn.

Huawei’s research and development commitment to cybersecurity

Colm Murphy, from the European Cybersecurity Center at Huawei, emphasised the company’s sustained investment in research and development (R&D) as a cornerstone of its cybersecurity strategy.

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“In 2024, Huawei invested $24.6bn in research and development, representing 20.8 per cent of its annual revenue,” said Murphy.

“Over the past decade, Huawei’s research and development spend has totaled $171.1bn. Currently, more than 3,000 personnel are dedicated to cybersecurity research and development, with 5 per cent of total research and development investment focused solely on securing Huawei products.”

Murphy added, “Cybersecurity and user privacy are Huawei’s top priorities. With operations in over 170 countries, Huawei has implemented end-to-end security practices and has maintained a record free of major cybersecurity incidents.”

Addressing AI-era threats

Richard Wu, President of the Security Product Domain at Huawei, highlighted the rise of AI-driven threats. “AI technologies like ChatGPT and DeepSeek are revolutionizing industries, but they are also being exploited by hackers. In 2024, AI-driven network attacks rose by 50 per cent year-over-year.”

Wu cited alarming trends: “More than 100 million new viruses are created annually. Tools like WormGPT and FraudGPT enable the generation of 1,000 phishing emails in one minute—something that would take a human three days.”

Huawei has responded by integrating AI into its cybersecurity defenses. The company has established six global cybersecurity labs and was the first in the industry to adopt AI to bolster protection. “AI enables advanced threat detection, operational support, and real-time alert analysis. In one government deployment, our AI analyzed 10,000 alerts in six minutes—160 times faster than manual processing,” Wu said.

Huawei cloud’s AI-native strategy

Dr Zhu Shenggao, Vice President of AI at Huawei Cloud for the Middle East & Central Asia, noted that the cloud division is now fully aligned around an “AI-native” strategy.

“With our ‘one center, seven defenses’ security model, we offer end-to-end protection for AI systems, ensuring compliance, privacy, and control,” he said. “Security for large AI models is now essential, as they face specific threats and ethical concerns.”

Combating the rise of ransomware

Wu also addressed the growing threat of ransomware. “In 2024, ransomware caused global losses of $42bn, with an average of 21 days of business disruption per incident,” he said. “Only 4 per cent of enterprises can fully recover data even after paying ransoms.”

Huawei’s HiSec Endpoint product is designed to protect laptops, computers, and servers. It features AI-powered detection, multi-hop source tracing, and intelligent backup triggering. “Unlike traditional vendors, our system allows virus removal from all infected devices in one action,” said Wu.

Proactive defense across layers

Yongjian Li, President of Data Protection at Huawei, introduced the industry’s first multi-layer coordinated protection solution against ransomware.

Key capabilities include:

• 99.9 per cent ransomware detection via SAN/NAS scanning with decoy files,
• End-to-end encryption from data production to backup zones, and
• Automated backup drills enabling five times faster recovery validation.

“This represents a shift from reactive to proactive cybersecurity,” said Li.