CHINESE authorities have told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by more than a dozen firms from the US and Israel due to national security concerns, three people briefed on the matter said.

As trade and diplomatic tensions flare between China and the US and both sides vie for tech supremacy, Beijing has been keen to replace Western-made technology with domestic alternatives.

The US companies whose cybersecurity software has been banned include Broadcom-owned VMware, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet, while the Israeli companies include Check Point Software Technologies, two of the sources said. The third source said other companies whose software was banned included Alphabet-owned Mandiant and Wiz, whose purchase Alphabet announced last year, as well as US firms CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Recorded Future, McAfee, Claroty, and Rapid7.

Israeli firm CyberArk, whose purchase was announced by Palo Alto last year, was also on the list, as were Orca Security and Cato Networks, two Israeli firms, and Imperva, which was purchased by French defense firm Thales in 2023.

SHARES SLIDE FOLLOWING SOFTWARE BAN
Recorded Future said in an email that “Recorded Future does not do business in China, and has no intention to do business in China.” McAfee said it is a consumer-focused company whose technology “is not built for government or enterprise use.”

CrowdStrike said it did not sell into China and did not have offices, hire people or host infrastructure there, and thus could “only be negligibly affected.” SentinelOne said it had “no direct revenue exposure to China” as it did not sell to Chinese entities or resellers and had no offices there.

The other blacklisted companies did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Shares of Broadcom were down more than 5% in Wednesday afternoon trading, while Palo Alto’s shares slipped about 1%. Fortinet shares fell around 2%.

Reuters was unable to establish how many Chinese companies received the notice that the sources said was issued in recent days.

Chinese authorities expressed concern the software could collect and transmit confidential information abroad, the sources said. They declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.

China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

PREPARATIONS UNDER WAY FOR TRUMP VISIT
The United States and China, which have been locked in an uneasy trade truce, are preparing for a visit by US President Donald Trump to Beijing in April.

While the West and China have clashed over China’s efforts to build up its semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors, Chinese analysts have said Beijing has become increasingly concerned that any Western equipment could be hacked by foreign powers.

It has therefore sought to replace Western computer equipment and word processing software.

The country’s largest cybersecurity providers include 360 Security Technology and Neusoft.

Some of the US and Israeli companies facing a ban for their part have repeatedly alleged Chinese hacking operations, which China has denied.

Last month, Check Point published a report on an allegedly Chinese-linked hacking operation against an unidentified “European government office.” In September, Palo Alto published a report alleging a Chinese hacking effort targeted diplomats worldwide.

SIGNIFICANT CHINESE FOOTPRINT
Several of the firms do not conduct business with Chinese clients, but others have built a significant footprint in China.

Fortinet has three offices in mainland China and one in Hong Kong, according to its website. Check Point’s website lists support addresses in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Broadcom lists six China locations, while Palo Alto lists five local offices in China, including one in Macau.

The politics around foreign cybersecurity vendors has long been fraught. Such firms are often staffed with intelligence veterans, they typically work closely with their respective national defense establishments, and their software products have sweeping access to corporate networks and individual devices – all of which at least theoretically provides a springboard for spying or sabotage.

Suspicions about the origin and motive of Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky, for example, eventually led to a purge of the software from US government networks in 2017. In 2024, sales of Kaspersky products were banned across the United States.— Reuters

WASHINGTON — Iran closed its airspace temporarily to most flights late on Wednesday, forcing airlines to cancel, reroute or delay some flights, amid concerns about possible military action between the United States and Iran.

Iran said in a notice posted by the US Federal Aviation Administration that it had closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 p.m. ET (2215 GMT). The prohibition was set to last for more than two hours until 7:30 p.m. ET, or 0030 GMT, but the end time was an estimate, the notice said. It was still on the FAA website site 30 minutes after its estimated expiry.

Iranian airspace was almost completely empty of civilian airplanes at 7:15 p.m. ET except for two Mahan Air flights traveling between Iran and China, according to tracking data from FlightRadar24.

President Donald Trump has been weighing a response to the situation in Iran which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years.

The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.

Missile and drone barrages in a growing number of conflict zones represent a high risk to airline traffic.

India’s largest airline, IndiGo said some of its international flights would be impacted by Iran’s sudden airspace closure. Air India said its flights were using alternative routes that could result in delays or cancellations.

A flight by Russia’s Aeroflot bound for Tehran returned to Moscow after the closure, according to Flightradar24 data.

Earlier on Wednesday, Germany issued a new directive cautioning the country’s airlines from entering Iranian airspace, shortly after Lufthansa rejigged its flight operations across the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.

The United States already prohibits all US commercial flights from overflying Iran and there are no direct flights between the countries.

Airline operators like flydubai and Turkish Airlines have canceled multiple flights to Iran in the past week.

“Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information. “The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.”

A Ukraine International Airlines jet was downed by Iran’s military in 2020, killing all 176 passengers and crew.

Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice while it would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman from Wednesday until Monday next week so that crew would not have to stay overnight. Some flights could also be canceled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement.

Italian carrier ITA Airways, in which Lufthansa Group is now a major shareholder, said that it would similarly suspend night flights to Tel Aviv until Tuesday next week.—Reuters