America’s Federal Communication Commission (FCC) claims that Kaspersky and China Mobile and China Telecom are threats to national security.
Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel saidUS law requires the commission to publish and maintain a list of communications equipment and services that pose an unacceptable risk to national security or the security and safety of US persons.
The FCC is not the first organisation to issue a warning about Kaspersky following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, Germany’s cybersecurity authority – the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) – issued a notice advising organisations that are using Kaspersky’s security products to find BSI-approved replacements.
Kaspersky’s CEO, Eugene Kaspersky, came under fire for a tweet in which he stopped short of criticising Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
“We believe that peaceful dialogue is the only possible instrument for resolving conflicts. War isn’t good for anyone”, he said.
In response to the FCC’s announcement, Kaspersky said it was “disappointed with the decision by the FCC to prohibit certain telecommunications-related federal subsidies from being used to purchase Kaspersky products and services.
“This decision is not based on any technical assessment of Kaspersky products – that the company continuously advocates for – but instead is being made on political grounds”, the company added.
“Kaspersky believes today’s expansion of such prohibition on entities that receive FCC telecommunication-related subsidies is similarly unsubstantiated and is a response to the geopolitical climate rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services.”
China Mobile and China Telecom , meanwhile, are the latest Chinese companies to be added to the list, joining Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, and video surveillance systems vendors Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company and Dahua Technology Company.
The listing means these companies are unable to access certain federal funds in the US.
In 2017, it was made a requirement that US government agencies remove Kaspersky products and the use of Chinese communications was already heavily restricted.
