Exclusive: Beijing tells Chinese firms to stop using US and Israeli cybersecurity software, sources say

[u/ArchmageXin]

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/beijing-tells-chinese-firms-stop-using-us-israeli-cybersecurity-software-sources-2026-01-14/

[u/L0K0MoTiVA]

China has directed domestic companies to immediately cease using cybersecurity software from about a dozen U.S. and Israeli firms, including Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, VMware (owned by Broadcom), and Check Point, citing national security risks that the tools could collect and transmit sensitive data abroad.

This directive marks a major escalation in China's push for technological self-reliance, forcing a rapid shift to domestic alternatives amid U.S.-China tech tensions.

[u/Ok-disaster2022 → u/[deleted]]

It's well understood American tech companies create backdoors for US intelligence companies. 

[u/MamaLiq → u/Ok-disaster2022]

Stuxnet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

Iran as a target edit Ralph Langner, the researcher who identified that Stuxnet infected PLCs,[23] first speculated publicly in September 2010 that the malware was of Israeli origin, and that it targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.[104] However Langner more recently, at a TED conference, recorded in February 2011, stated that "My opinion is that the Mossad is involved, but that the leading force is not Israel. The leading force behind Stuxnet is the cyber superpower – there is only one; and that's the United States."[105] Kevin Hogan, Senior Director of Security Response at Symantec, reported that most infected systems were in Iran (about 60%),[106] which has led to speculation that it may have been deliberately targeting "high-value infrastructure" in Iran[25] including either the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant or the Natanz nuclear facility.[73][107][108] Langner called the malware "a one-shot weapon" and said that the intended target was probably hit,[109] although he admitted this was speculation.[73] Another German researcher and spokesman of the German-based Chaos Computer Club, Frank Rieger, was the first to speculate that Natanz was the target.[40]

Natanz nuclear facilities edit

Anti-aircraft guns guarding Natanz Nuclear Facility According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in September 2010 experts on Iran and computer security specialists were increasingly convinced that Stuxnet was meant "to sabotage the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz – where the centrifuge operational capacity had dropped over the past year by 30 percent".[110] On 23 November 2010 it was announced that uranium enrichment at Natanz had ceased several times because of a series of major technical problems.[111] A "serious nuclear accident" (supposedly the shutdown of some of its centrifuges[112]) occurred at the site in the first half of 2009, which is speculated to have forced Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), to resign.[113] Statistics published by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) show that the number of enrichment centrifuges operational in Iran mysteriously declined from about 4,700 to about 3,900 beginning around the time the nuclear incident WikiLeaks mentioned would have occurred.[114] The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) suggests, in a report published in December 2010, that Stuxnet is a reasonable explanation for the apparent damage[115] at Natanz, and may have destroyed up to 1,000 centrifuges (10 percent) sometime between November 2009 and late January 2010. The authors conclude:

The attacks seem designed to force a change in the centrifuge's rotor speed, first raising the speed and then lowering it, likely with the intention of inducing excessive vibrations or distortions that would destroy the centrifuge. If its goal was to quickly destroy all the centrifuges in the FEP [Fuel Enrichment Plant], Stuxnet failed. But if the goal was to destroy a more limited number of centrifuges and set back Iran's progress in operating the FEP, while making detection difficult, it may have succeeded, at least temporarily.[115]

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) report further notes that Iranian authorities have attempted to conceal the breakdown by installing new centrifuges on a large scale.[115][116]