Colorado state and native governments shopping for banned Chinese language tech

Efforts to dam Chinese language telecom gear from U.S. provide chains are proving troublesome as state and native governments in Colorado and elsewhere, proceed to purchase merchandise designated a menace to nationwide safety, a brand new report finds.

Driving the information: State and native governments should higher align themselves with U.S. insurance policies to maintain Chinese language gear out of faculties, hospitals and different critical infrastructure nationwide, based on Georgetown College’s Middle for Safety and Rising Expertise.

• The wide-ranging checklist of banned merchandise contains smartphones, surveillance cameras and networking gear, based on the report, which is predicated on procurement data scraped from public paperwork.

By the numbers: Between 2015 and 2021, Colorado’s state and native governments spent $202,000 on Chinese language know-how throughout 31 transactions. The small print on the purchases are unclear.

Why it issues: U.S. officers warn Chinese language telecom gear may make the U.S. weak to financial espionage or digital sabotage.

• Federal companies have been banned since 2018 from procuring merchandise from Chinese language tech corporations Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Dahua and Hytera.

Sure, however: Federal-level bans do not apply to state companies and solely 5 states — Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Vermont — have enacted measures to restrict procurement of such gear on nationwide safety grounds.

What they’re saying: The governor’s Workplace of Data Expertise says it prohibits its contractors from utilizing items or companies from federally banned corporations.

• However spokesperson Brandi Wildfang Simmons says, “OIT solely represents a portion of Colorado’s state authorities and doesn’t have a task within the buying actions of native communities.”

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