Secure Equipment Act

In the year 2021, the US Congress passed the Secure Equipment Act.

Highlights

The law prohibits US regulatory agencies from licensing companies that threaten national security, especially those from China. It is mainly targeted at Huawei in China. It also covers four other Chinese companies with equipment that allows backdoor entry.

At the technical level, the law requires the Federal Communications Commission to establish rules that do not review approval applications for devices listed in the Covered Communications Equipment. The communication devices listed pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of nature.

Reasons for passing the Act

In the month of March 2019, the Federal Communications Commission designated 5 companies from China as a threat to national security. ZTE, Huawei, Zhejiang, Hytera Communications and Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology were among these companies. These companies use backdoors to hack into data security systems of the United States. According to the United States and several other countries, the Chinese government is using these loopholes for surveillance.

Targeting Huawei

One of the major suppliers of the Great Firewall of China is the company named Huawei. The Great Firewall of China is a combination of various legislative measures that regulate the Internet domestically. Huawei is working closely with the Chinese government to enable surveillance of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In Iran, Huawei is a leading provider of telecommunications equipment for national surveillance programs. It was also alleged that Huawei Technology developed a telecommunications monitoring device for the Taliban. For these reasons, the United States believes that Huawei devices pose a major threat to national security.