US FCC bans the import of electronic equipment from Chinese firms

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced it will completely ban the import of electronic equipment from Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the total ban for telecom and surveillance equipment from Chinese companies Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua due to an “unacceptable” national security threat.

The US government has already added the companies to the Covered List and the new rules aims at protecting the Americans from national security threats involving telecommunications.

“The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules prohibiting communications equipment deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national security from being authorized for importation or sale in the United States. This is the latest step by the Commission to protect our nation’s communications networks.” reads the announcement published by FCC. “In recent years, the Commission, Congress, and the Executive Branch have taken multiple actions to build a more secure and resilient supply chain for communications equipment and services within the United States.”

“The FCC is committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders, and we are continuing that work here,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “These new rules are an important part of our ongoing actions to protect the American people from national security threats involving telecommunications.”

The new rules implement the directive in the Secure Equipment Act of 2021, which was signed by President Biden in November.

Chinese firms Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua have to provide details about the safeguards they have implemented on the sale of their devices for government use and the surveillance of critical infrastructure facilities.

In September, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has added Pacific Network Corp, ComNet (USA) LLC, and China Unicom (Americas) Operations Limited, to the Covered List.

The FCC explained that the above companies are subject to the exploitation, influence and control of the Chinese government, and the national security risks associated with such exploitation, influence, and control.

This week, the British government ordered its departments to stop installing Chinese security cameras at sensitive buildings due to security risks. The Government has ordered departments to disconnect the camera from core networks and to consider removing them.

The risk is related to the use of security cameras manufactured by Chinese-owned companies Dahua and Hikvision.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Federal Communications Commission)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.