The United States communications regulator (FCC) blacklisted the Russian antivirus company Kaspersky for threatening US national security.
This is the first time a Russian company has been included in the FCC's 'entity list'. Previously this list was mostly filled by Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE. Besides Kaspersky, this time the FCC also blacklisted China Telecom and China Mobile International USA.
The inclusion of these three companies on the US blacklist means that US companies are prohibited from using federal subsidies provided through the Universal Service Fund to purchase products or services from them or any other company on the list.
"I welcome that our national security agency agrees with my assessment that China Mobile and China Telecom appear to meet the threshold required to add this entity to our list," FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. (27/3/2022).
"Their addition, as well as Kaspersky Labs, will help secure our network from threats posed by Chinese and Russian-backed entities seeking to engage in espionage and harm American interests."
Kaspersky immediately responded to the FCC's decision via its official website. They said the FCC's decision was taken on political grounds regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The FCC announcement itself did not directly mention a Russian invasion or President Joe Biden's warning about the threat of cyberattacks from Russia.
Kaspersky added they would continue to work closely with the US government to address the concerns of the FCC and other US regulators.
The relationship between the US and Kaspersky has been going on for a long time. In 2017, Russian intelligence allegedly used Kaspersky antivirus to steal classified data from the National Security Agency, but Kaspersky has denied this allegation.
Since Russia launched the attack on Ukraine, several countries such as Germany and Italy have banned their citizens from using Kaspersky antivirus because of the risk of espionage or being forced to launch cyber attacks.