Security Experts:

Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Risk Management

US Formalizes Ban on Government Contracts to China’s Huawei, Others

The United States unveiled rules on Wednesday formally banning technology giant Huawei and other Chinese firms from government contracts in the latest move in the countries’ escalating trade war.

The United States unveiled rules on Wednesday formally banning technology giant Huawei and other Chinese firms from government contracts in the latest move in the countries’ escalating trade war.

The interim rule will preclude any US federal agency from purchasing telecom or technology equipment from the firms “as a substantial or essential component of any system, or as a critical technology as part of any system,” starting August 13.

The rules implement a ban included in the defense authorization act Congress approved earlier this year.

Waivers to the rules may be granted “under certain circumstances” by an agency head for up to two years, or by the Director of National Intelligence in other cases, which were not specified.

Huawei said it would press its court challenge to the constitutionality of the ban in federal court.

In a statement, the company said the law “will do nothing to ensure the protection of US telecom networks and systems and rather is (a) trade barrier based on country-of-origin, invoking punitive action without any evidence of wrongdoing.”

The new rules are part of a sweeping effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to restrict Huawei, which officials claim is linked to Chinese intelligence.

It also comes amid a heated dispute between the two economic powers over international trade rules, which some analysts say could roil the global economic system.

The rules, which require a 60-day comment period, also bar contracts to Chinese firms ZTE, Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company and Dahua Technology Company.

Huawei also faces sanctions that bar the export of US technology to the Chinese firm on national security grounds.

That ban, which has been suspended until mid-August, could prevent Huawei from getting key hardware and software including smartphone chips and key elements of the Google Android operating system.

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join this webinar to learn best practices that organizations can use to improve both their resilience to new threats and their response times to incidents.

Register

Join this live webinar as we explore the potential security threats that can arise when third parties are granted access to a sensitive data or systems.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Application Security

Cycode, a startup that provides solutions for protecting software source code, emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday with $4.6 million in seed funding.

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

CISO Strategy

Cybersecurity-related risk is a top concern, so boards need to know they have the proper oversight in place. Even as first-timers, successful CISOs make...

Application Security

Fortinet on Monday issued an emergency patch to cover a severe vulnerability in its FortiOS SSL-VPN product, warning that hackers have already exploited the...

Cybersecurity Funding

2022 Cybersecurity Year in Review: Top news headlines and trends that impacted the security ecosystem

Application Security

Password management firm LastPass says the hackers behind an August data breach stole a massive stash of customer data, including password vault data that...

Risk Management

In this virtual summit, SecurityWeek brings together expert defenders to share best practices around reducing attack surfaces in modern computing.