Following our recent reports that showed how the state governments of New Mexico, Louisiana, and South Carolina used taxpayer funds to purchase Chinese government-owned Lenovo and Lexmark equipment, China Tech Threat has uncovered more payments connected to the Pennsylvania state government. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, we have discovered that Pennsylvania has spent $491,434.20 on Lenovo products in recent years. The use of this equipment, which has been banned by U.S. military and intelligence agencies because of security vulnerabilities, endangers Pennsylvanians’ personal and financial information.
Link to our Pennsylvania FOIA report: https://chinatechthreat.com/pa/
The state agencies that have purchased Lenovo products handle sensitive and confidential information and should not be using technology with connections to the Chinese government. They include the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which spent $440,397.00 and manages the state’s infrastructure, and the Office of Administration – Information Technology division, which spent $51,037.20 and is responsible for maintaining state IT networks.
See here for the full summary of purchases made by Pennsylvania.
There are a number of officials that can take action to prevent the use of this equipment, including Chief Procurement Officer Janice Pistor and Chief Information Officer John MacMillan. Additionally, members of Congress have spoken out on similar issues, including Senator Pat Toomey, who has called on the Chinese government to end cyber espionage in the United States, and Congressman John Joyce, who has called out the Chinese government for technology theft. We look forward to state and congressional leaders working together to fix this issue and to secure the data privacy of Pennsylvanians.