Are banned Chinese cameras watching the US military?

WASHINGTON ― Amid news that thousands of banned Chinese-made surveillance devices are in use across American government installations, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is asking the Pentagon to identify the Chinese gear in use at U.S. military facilities.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper made public Wednesday, Rubio said the Trump administration needs a comprehensive strategy to address the threats posed by foreign-sourced components and subcomponents.

“The Department of Defense must act quickly to identify and remove this equipment as every day that passes only provides our adversaries additional time to infiltrate and exploit our national security networks as well as the ability to monitor U.S. military activities that may be of interest,” Rubio said.

The letter comes after Forbes reported the government has made little progress complying with a legally mandated ban on Chinese surveillance tech. Government contractor Forescout found 3,500 devices from from telecom giants Huawei and ZTE, as well as surveillance camera-makers Dahua and Hikvision, on U.S. government systems a month before the ban was to take effect.

Language in the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act banned the procurement of Chinese-produced cameras and associated electronics to ensure U.S. government installations are not at risk of surveillance by potentially malicious Chinese technology. The provision also prohibited the renewal of any contracts currently in use across the federal government.

“As you continue to posture the Department of Defense in the era of great power competition, we must remain vigilant to attack from every possible source,” Rubio said in his letter to Esper. “I strongly urge you to implement a comprehensive and proactive approach meeting the requirements of the ban cited in the FY 2019 NDAA."

Among other questions, Rubio’s letter asked what steps the DoD has taken to address the NDAA’s ban on procurement, whether the department has considered removing the technologies, and whether the future will bring further prohibitions on additional products or manufacturers.

Rubio wanted to know whether the DoD has a way to purge nontraditional surveillance gear automatically. “How would you detect non-traditional IP-connected products, those beyond, if future prohibitions on such products materialize?"

Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.

华盛顿——有消息称，数千台被禁用的中国制造的监控设备正在美国政府机构中使用。对此，佛罗里达州共和党参议员马可·卢比奥要求五角大楼查明美国军事设施中使用的中国设备。

鲁比奥在周三公开的一封致国防部长马克·埃斯珀的信中表示，特朗普政府需要制定一项全面的战略来应对外国来源的零部件和子零部件所构成的威胁。

鲁比奥说：“国防部必须迅速采取行动，查明并移除这些设备，因为每过一天，只会给我们的对手更多的时间渗透和利用我们的国家安全网络，以及监视我们可能感兴趣的美国军事活动。”

此前，《福布斯》报道称，美国政府在遵守法律强制禁止使用中国监控技术方面进展甚微。政府承包商Forescout在禁令生效前一个月，在美国政府系统中发现了来自华为和中兴通讯等电信巨头以及大华和海康威视等监控摄像头制造商的3500台设备。

2019财年《国防授权法案》中的一项条款禁止采购中国制造的摄像头及相关电子设备，以确保美国政府设施不会受到中国潜在恶意技术的监视。该条款还禁止续签联邦政府目前正在使用的任何合同。

鲁比奥在致埃斯珀的信中写道：“随着您继续在大国竞争时代调整国防部的战略部署，我们必须保持警惕，防范来自一切可能的攻击。我强烈敦促您采取全面、积极主动的措施，以满足2019财年国防授权法案中提及的禁令要求。”

鲁比奥的信中还提出了其他一些问题，例如国防部采取了哪些措施来应对《国防授权法案》中关于采购的禁令，国防部是否考虑过移除这些技术，以及未来是否会对其他产品或制造商实施进一步的禁令。

鲁比奥想知道国防部是否有办法自动清除非传统监控设备。“如果未来真的禁止这类产品，你们将如何检测非传统的、更复杂的IP连接产品？”

乔·古尔德是《防务新闻》的资深五角大楼记者，负责报道国家安全政策、政治和国防工业的交汇点。他此前曾担任国会记者。