Listen to the interview here.

“I’m not necessarily interested in mandates on cities and counties per se, and I’m not sure that’s the initial approach we want to take, but I do think the creation of awareness is also important because once presented with the facts, and the reality [is] we have found that most institutions, from academia to governments, are willing to step up and take the action,” Rubio said.

Read more here.

While the federal government has cracked down on the use of Chinese-owned companies at the federal level in recent years over espionage and data safety concerns, at least 43 states hold important IT contracts with other Chinese-owned companies and could be at risk, according to a report released Monday.

The report, published by ChinaTechThreat.com, focuses predominantly on more than three dozen large tech contracts and purchase agreements with states held by Chinese-owned companies Lexmark and Lenovo, whose products are listed in the National Vulnerability Database. While products from those companies aren’t used by U.S. military, intelligence or federal agencies, the report suggests they’re being used by states, which could open their IT systems to attacks, data theft and other vulnerabilities.

Read the full article here.

A report from China Tech Threat warns that many US state procurement officials are buying risky technology from Chinese vendors. The group’s report mentions Lexmark and Lenovo in particular, and urges the National Association of State Procurement Officers to help its members introduce greater security into their acquisition processes. Lexmark denied presenting any such threat, telling Nextgov that the report contains “inaccuracies and mischaracterizations.”

Read the full piece here.

Leading Chinese technology companies have sold equipment to state governments in the U.S. that can be used by Beijing to obtain sensitive information, according to a security analysis made public Monday.

The contracts for China-based Lexmark and Lenovo permit the companies to send data and information they receive from state and local government work to China under a 2017 law requiring all companies to cooperate with Beijing’s intelligence services, including granting access to the data the companies collect overseas, the report said.

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Chinese intelligence agencies could have access to the most innocent-looking assets in state and local governments around the country: the office printer.

“Printers, one of the least secure Internet of Things devices, store sensitive data on internal hard drives derived from the various printing jobs executed on a day-to-day basis,” Roslyn Layton, an American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar and founder of the China Tech Threat, wrote in a report released this week.

That observation punctuates a finding that dozens of state and local governments have contracted with two companies that federal officials have flagged as security risks, specifically Lenovo, a cellphone and laptop maker, and Lexmark, a laser printer company. The report demonstrates Beijing’s reach into U.S. society, to the point of alarming federal officials.

Read the full article here.