China to Begin Investigating IT Service, Product Providers
China will investigate providers of IT products and services to protect “national security” and “economic and social development,” according to the official Xinhua news agency. This move follows the U.S. government charged five Chinese military officers with hacking U.S. companies to steal trade secrets, Reuters reports.
Companies that don’t pass China’s checks will no longer be allowed to supply services and products in China. Products not meeting security requirements will be banned.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei declined to directly say which governments or businesses China is targeting with this move, but he did say in a briefing: “The introduction of such a system will be the most effective legal basis for safeguarding China’s Internet security and will also have a significant role in promoting the construction of China as an Internet powerhouse.”
China has also banned new central government computers from using Windows 8 over security concerns around the operating system, which exposes computers to monitoring and the risk of being controlled remotely, according to the People’s Daily newspaper.
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