Kaspersky ban: US FCC determines Russian cybersecurity firm poses ‘unacceptable risk to national security’

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has updated the list of tech companies deemed to pose risks to national security and has added Kaspersky, along with two Chinese telcos. But the cybersecurity firm retaliated and called the decision “unconstitutional.”

Kaspersky, headquartered in Moscow, was added to the FCC’s Covered List on March 25. It is essentially a list of tech companies providing communications equipment and services that the agency, along with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), determined to “pose an unacceptable risk to national security.”

The Covered List is essentially a ban list that prohibits US companies subsidized through the FCC’s Universal Service Fund from procuring products and services from the identified companies. Aside from Kaspersky, other prominent names on the list are Huawei and ZTE, both added in March 2021. China Mobile and China Telecom were also included in the ban list last week.

Per the Covered List, US companies are barred from purchasing Kaspersky’s (and its subsidiaries’) information security products, solutions, and services supplied. “Their addition, as well as Kaspersky Labs, 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,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in a press release (PDF).

This is not the first time Kaspersky butted heads with the US government. A 2017 order from the DHS banned federal agencies and offices from using Kaspersky products, citing concerns over “ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence.”

In Kaspersky’s statement last Friday, the company took note of the 2017 DHS directive as a basis of the FCC decision last week. Both instances, Kaspersky maintained, were based on “unsubstantiated allegations.” 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.”

Earlier this month, Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) also discouraged companies and citizens from using products and services developed by Kaspersky. However, BSI’s announcement was more of a warning rather than a mandate to ban the company’s cybersecurity tools.

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