Tag Archive for: blacklists

U.S. Blacklists Dozens of Chinese Tech Firms Citing National Security Concerns – NBC New York


  • The Biden administration added a dozen Chinese companies to its trade blacklist on Wednesday.
  • Of those blacklisted, eight Chinese technology entities were added for their alleged role in assisting the Chinese military’s quantum computing efforts.
  • U.S. officials have long complained that Chinese companies are beholden to the People’s Republic of China and collect sensitive information on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army.

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration added a dozen Chinese companies to its trade blacklist on Wednesday citing national security as well as foreign policy concerns.

Eight technology entities based in China were added to the list for their alleged role in assisting the Chinese military’s quantum computing efforts and acquiring or attempting “to acquire U.S. origin-items in support of military applications.”

U.S. officials have long complained that Chinese companies are beholden to the People’s Republic of China and collect sensitive information on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army. The Chinese Communist Party has previously said that it does not engage in industrial espionage. 

The Commerce Department also listed 16 entities and individuals operating in China and Pakistan for their work on Islamabad’s nuclear and ballistic missile program. In all, the Biden administration added 27 entities and individuals located in the People’s Republic of China, Pakistan, Russia, Japan and Singapore.

“Global trade and commerce should support peace, prosperity, and good-paying jobs, not national security risks,” wrote U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in a statement. “The Department of Commerce is committed to effectively using export controls to protect our national security.”

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Source…

US Blacklists Israel Tech Firm After Years of Spyware Sales — IR INSIDER


Israel technology firm ‘NSO Group’ received a landmark ban from the Biden administration on Wednesday for selling smartphone surveillance tools. The blacklist is the strongest measure taken by the US government to curb largely unregulated global spyware abuse.

The US Department of Commerce accused the company of selling hacking spyware to foreign governments targeting specific individuals, from dissidents to members of the Catholic clergy. Security researchers caught the company’s spyware attempting to access the iPhones of a human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates and a journalist in Mexico. 

NSO Group Spokesperson Zamir Dahbash said that the spyware was solely used to track criminal and terrorist investigations for authorized governments. The firm’s corporate mission statement: “make the world a safe place”, is advertised to governments and law enforcement agencies around the world as necessary to track kidnappers, terrorists, and drug dealers. This pitch has earned the company over $61 million from contracts in Mexico alone, while also pitching throughout Europe.

NSO Group emphasized their commitment to global safety when responding to the ban in a statement, announcing that they were, “dismayed by the decision given that our technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime, and thus we will advocate for this decision to be reversed.” They also claimed that product misuse has “resulted in multiple terminations of contract with government agencies.”

Conglomerates like Apple, Google, and Facebook have increased their encryption methods to protect data in their systems from government agency tracking. NSO Group’s spyware tool, Pegasus, bypasses security measures by baiting digital users to click on malicious links or succumb to software flaws. Facebook is currently suing the firm for targeting 1,400 users on their Whatsapp messaging service.

Source…

U.S. Blacklists NSO Group and 3 Others for Selling Spyware, Hacking Tools


The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security banned U.S. persons from dealing with four companies—including Israel’s NSO Group—that they say acted against national security interests by trading in hacking tools and selling spyware to foreign governments.

The other listed companies include Israel’s Candiru, Singapore’s Computer Security Initiative Consultancy and Russia’s Positive Technologies.

“The United States is committed to aggressively using export controls to hold companies accountable that develop, traffic, or use technologies to conduct malicious activities that threaten the cybersecurity of members of civil society, dissidents, government officials, and organizations here and abroad,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a press release Wednesday about the companies addition to Commerce’s Entity List.

While the list often features additions from adversarial nations, Israel and Singapore are notable U.S. allies on cybersecurity. Key lawmakers have even proposed legislation for the Department of Homeland Security to issue grants to cybersecurity-related companies in Israel as long as they were part of a joint venture with a corresponding U.S. entity.

“We are not taking action against countries or governments where these entities are located,” the State Department noted in its press release.

Wednesday’s action and a related interim rule Commerce recently issued come after years of the U.S. trying to determine the right controls over technologies that can be used for legitimate cybersecurity purposes or as weapons by adversaries and intelligence-gathering operations. The interim rule describes how the U.S. finally plans to issue Authorized Cybersecurity Exceptions to control such technology and join 42 other nations that have already been enforcing regulations on hacking tools under the Wassenaar Arrangement.  

But Commerce said U.S. entities would not be issued any such exception for dealing with the four companies listed Wednesday.

Decisions to add or remove companies from the Entity List are made by members of an End-user Review Committee that is chaired by Commerce and includes the departments of State, Energy, Defense and, if…

Source…

Russia blacklists official Bitcoin websites

Citing a court ruling in the country from September, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked five websites containing resources and information on Bitcoin, including the Bitcoin Foundation’s Bitcoin.org.

A Russia Today article reports that Roskomnadzor has also banned “Russian-language forum btcsec.com, Wikipedia-style information site bitcoin.it, Russian bitcoin community coinspot.io as well as exchange service indacoin.com.”

Even Bitcoin’s proponents don’t see Bitcoin surviving in Russia. Igor Chepkasov, chairman of the Crypto Currencies Foundation of Russia, told CoinDesk that the censorship of Bitcoin information on the country’s public internet, among other measures taken against the technology, “is a dress rehearsal for the prohibition of Bitcoin in Russia.”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network World Colin Neagle