Out of the Dark, Into the Light: Exposing Vulnerabilities in the U.S. Defense Supply Chain
Two years ago, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) put China-based encryption chip maker Hualan Microelectronics on the Entity List for “acquiring and … attempting to acquire US-origin items in support of military modernization for [China’s] People’s Liberation Army.” But as WIRED’s Andy Greenberg writes, Hualan and its subsidiary Initio still supply chips to Western manufacturers of encrypted hard drives that count NASA, NATO, and the U.S. military as customers. The FAA and other government agencies have bought encrypted hard drives with these chips too, per federal procurement records.
It’s alarming that the federal government would purchase products from or containing components of Entity Listed companies. It’s also a symptom of a much larger problem of the federal government not… Read More