US watchdog adds China telecoms firms, Russia’s Kaspersky to national security threat list
- China Telecom (Americas) Corp and China Mobile International USA have joined Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp on the list
- Kaspersky is the first Russian firm designated; in the announcement, the FCC did not cite the Ukraine war or Biden’s warnings of potential Russian cyberattacks
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday added China Telecom (Americas) Corp, China Mobile International USA and Russia’s AO Kaspersky Lab to its list of communications equipment and service providers deemed threats to US national security.
The regulator last year designated five Chinese companies including Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp as the first firms on the list, which was mandated under a 2019 law. Kaspersky is the first Russian company listed.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the new designations “will help secure our networks from threats posed by Chinese and Russian state-backed entities seeking to engage in espionage and otherwise harm America’s interests”.
US officials have long said that running Kaspersky software could open American networks to malign activity from Moscow and banned Kaspersky’s flagship antivirus product from federal networks in 2017. Moscow-based Kaspersky has consistently denied being a tool of the Russian government.
In naming Kaspersky, the FCC announcement did not cite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or recent warnings by President Joe Biden of potential cyberattacks by Russia in response to US sanctions and support of Ukraine.
Kaspersky said in a statement it was disappointed in the FCC decision, arguing it was “made on political grounds”. The move was “unsubstantiated and is a response to the geopolitical climate rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services,” the company said.