A senior Huawei executive has warned the Morrison government not to rely on trust when it comes to cyber security, saying all equipment was vulnerable to devastating cyber attacks without vastly improved security standards.

Andy Purdy, the Chinese firm's US chief security officer and a former White House staffer in the George W Bush administration, said a "comprehensive approach" to cyber security was urgently needed to protect against cyber attacks. "I don’t trust anybody, and nobody should,” he said.