The Chinese government has dropped foreign security software providers from its list of approved vendors. With both Kaspersky and Symantec no longer listed as options, China will now rely purely on local experts for its security needs. State controlled news portal, People’s Daily, broke the news while also indicating that other foreign technology companies are also being dropped in favour of local solutions. Apparently Microsoft is the only remaining vendor that isn’t Chinese left on any technology procurement list.
It could be speculated that the recent PRISM scandal could be behind the decision to drop technology originating from foreign sources as there is the fear that it could already be compromised by at least one of the many intelligence agencies operating as part of the international spying campaign.
Tensions about cyber security have also been rising as America has been accusing China of conducting cyber-espionage activities against Western civilian targets. These accusations have been corroborated by several security software firms, most of which are no longer on China’s list of approved vendors.
Concerns about national security could potentially cause other countries to follow the communist government’s lead and drop foreign software in an effort to properly secure state secrets. Fortunately for China, it has a wealth of local vendors who are more than capable of taking over from Kaspersky and Symantec.
At very least, China is still not yet resorting to typewriters for highly sensitive documents.
[Source: Reuters, People’s Daily]
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