Late last week the Federal Communications Commission added three new firms to a list of communication equipment and service providers deemed a threat to national security in the US.

Those three companies are China Mobile, China Telecom and Kaspersky Lab. With this, firms in the US are barred from using federal subsidies from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund to buy products or services from these three companies.

“Today’s action is the latest in the FCC’s ongoing efforts, as part of the greater whole-of-government approach, to strengthen America’s communications networks against national security threats, including examining the foreign ownership of telecommunications companies providing service in the United States and revoking the authorization to operate where necessary. Our work in this area continues,” FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

So what did Kaspersky do to earn it’s place on this list? That’s not entirely clear.

The FCC points to a Binding Operational Directive issued by the Department of Homeland Security in 2017 that required federal agencies to remove any Kaspersky products from its systems. This appears to be what this new decision is based on as the FCC doesn’t add to what the Department of Homeland Security said in 2017. But that was some five years ago at this stage and we’re not the only ones scratching our heads at this decision.

“Kaspersky maintains that the US Government’s 2017 prohibitions on federal entities and federal contractors from using Kaspersky products and services were unconstitutional, based on unsubstantiated allegations, and lacked any public evidence of wrongdoing by the company,” Kaspersky said in a statement published at the weekend.

“As there has been no public evidence to otherwise justify those actions since 2017, and the FCC announcement specifically refers to the Department of Homeland Security’s 2017 determination as the basis for today’s decision, Kaspersky believes today’s expansion of such prohibition on entities that receive FCC telecommunication-related subsidies is similarly unsubstantiated and is a response to the geopolitical climate rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services,” the firm added.

As for China Telecom, the FCC says that it poses an unacceptable risk as a carrier in the US and the same was said of China Mobile.

“Based on Team Telecom’s finding that China Mobile’s services associated with its application for section 214 services posed substantial and unacceptable risks to U.S. national security, we find that Team Telecom also determined that the services that China Mobile’s application sought authority to provide are capable of otherwise posing an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and its people,” the commission said.

This is yet another blow for Kaspersky in the US but the firm says it won’t let this prevent it from providing services to its partners and customers around the world. Furthermore, should the FCC change it’s mind about this decision, Kaspersky says it will be ready to cooperate with the commission.