Kaspersky joins Huawei and ZTE as a national security threat on the FCC's entity list

The Federal Communications Commission or the FCC has added Kaspersky Lab, the maker of the popular Kaspersky suite of anti-virus software, to its entity list. The entity list is a group of companies that, according to the FCC, are a national security threat and so U.S. businesses can’t use federal subsidies to buy products/services of the companies on the list.

The addition of Kaspersky Lab marks the first time that a Russian company has been added to the list. Until now, FCC’s efforts have been focused on Chinese tech companies, resulting in the placement of tech giants like Huawei and ZTE on the entity list.

Per Bloomberg, the FCC also categorized China Telecom (Americas) Corp and China Mobile International USA Inc. as security liabilities and added them to the list as well. Explaining the decision, head of the FCC Jessica Rosenworcel said,” 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.”

Reacting to the FCC’s decision, Kaspersky termed the move as “a response to the geopolitical climate rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services.”

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