Secure Equipment Act

The Secure Equipment Act was passed by the US Congress in 2021.

What is Secure Equipment Act in simple terms?

The act prevents the US regulators from giving licenses to the companies, especially of Chinese origin, that pose national security threats. It mainly targets the Huawei of China. It also targets four other Chinese companies whose equipment provide backdoor entries.

What is Secure Equipment Act in technical terms?

In technical terms, the act requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish rules that will no longer review authorization application for equipment listed under covered communication equipment. The listed communication equipment is those that that pose unacceptable risk to natural security.

Why was the act passed?

In March 2019, the FCC designated five Chinese companies to pose national security threat. They were Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Zhejiang, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology. These companies are using backdoors to breach into the US data security system. According to US And several other countries, the Chinese Government use these backdoors to enable surveillance.

Why is Huawei the main target under the act?

Huawei is one of the main suppliers of Great Firewall of China. The Great Firewall of China is a combination of legislative actions that regulates internet domestically. Huawei works closely with the Chinese Government to enable surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. In Iran, Huawei is the leading provider of telecommunication equipment to the country’s surveillance programs. Also, it was alleged that the Huawei technologies developed telecommunications surveillance equipment for the Talibans. For these reasons, US believe that Huawei equipment is a great threat to the national security.