By David Shepardson and Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday added Russia’s AO Kaspersky Lab, China Telecom (Americas) Corp and China Mobile International USA to its list of communications equipment and services deemed a threat to U.S. national security.
A 2019 law requires the FCC to publish and update a list of communications equipment and services that pose an unacceptable risk to national security or the security and safety of U.S. people. Last year, the FCC designated five Chinese companies — the first firms named to the U.S. telecom regulator’s “covered list.”
“Today’s action is the latest in the FCC’s ongoing efforts, as part of the greater whole-of-government approach, to strengthen America’s communications networks against national security threats,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
The designation means money from the FCC’s $8.3 billion annual Universal Service Fund may no longer be used to purchase or maintain products from any of the companies.
Moscow-based Kaspersky has been under increasing pressure since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month. American officials had long been issuing warnings about Kaspersky, and the United States officially banned the company’s flagship antivirus product from federal networks in 2017. Recently European cyber authorities have begun to follow suit, issuing similar warnings.
Private companies had also begun cutting ties with Kaspersky. Earlier Friday, Kaspersky said in a message posted to Twitter that the popular bug bounty program HackerOne — which pays hackers money for finding software flaws — had ejected the firm from its platform.
In October, the FCC revoked the U.S. authorization for China Telecom (Americas), saying it “is subject to exploitation, influence and control by the Chinese government.” Chinese Telecom failed to persuade a U.S. court to reverse the decision.
In 2019, the FCC rejected China Mobile’s bid to provide U.S. telecommunications services, citing national security risks.
The Chinese telecom companies and Kapersky could not immediately be reached for comment.
The FCC in March 2021 designated Huawei Technologies Co, ZTE Corp, Hytera Communications Corp, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co and Dahua Technology Co as security threats.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Raphael SatterEditing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)
