Chinese cyber association calls for review of Intel products sold in China
China's CSAC says Intel products pose national security risks
Could trigger review by China's CAC cybersecurity regulator
No immediate comment from Intel or CAC
Adds context throughout, analyst in paragraph 9
By Eduardo Baptista
BEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) -Intel INTC.O products sold in China should be subject to a security review, the Cybersecurity Association of China (CSAC) said on Wednesday, alleging the U.S. chipmaker has "constantly harmed" the country's national security and interests.
While CSAC is an industry group rather than a government body, it has close ties to the Chinese state and the raft of accusations against Intel, published in a long post on its official WeChat account, could trigger a security review from China's powerful cyberspace regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
Intel and the CAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company's shares were down 2.7% in U.S. premarket trading amid a broad tech sell-off following a disappointing update from chip equipment maker ASML.
"It is recommended that a network security review is initiated on the products Intel sells in China, so as to effectively safeguard China's national security and the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese consumers," CSAC said.
Last year, CAC barred domestic operators of key infrastructure from buying products made by U.S. memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc MU.O after deeming the company's products had failed its network security review.
A similar security review on Intel products could negatively impact the company's revenues, over a quarter of which came from China last year.
BACKDOOR ALLEGATIONS
The allegations come at a time when China is dealing with a U.S.-led effort to restrict its access to crucial chipmaking equipment and components, in what Washington calls a bid to halt the modernization of China's military.
"Relationships between the U.S. and China are fragile and the more talk about restrictions on trade and tariffs, the more likely the other side will retaliate in a tit-for-tat situation," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.
CSAC in its post accuses Intel chips, including Xeon processors used for artificial intelligence tasks, of carrying several vulnerabilities, concluding that Intel "has major defects when it comes to product quality, security management, indicating that it is extremely irresponsible attitude towards customers."
The industry group goes on to state that operating systems embedded in all Intel processors are vulnerable to backdoors created by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
"This poses a great security threat to the critical information infrastructures of countries all over the world, including China...the use of Intel products poses a serious risk to national security." CSAC said.
A ban, even if temporary, on Intel products could further tighten the supply of AI chips in the Chinese market, which has struggled to find viable alternatives to cutting-edge products from Nvidia NVDA.O which dominate globally but are now banned from export to China.
Intel this year secured orders for its Xeon processors from several Chinese state-linked agencies for use in AI work, according to a Reuters review of public tenders.
Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Additional reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
