FCC begins blocking devices with alleged foreign surveillance chips
The Federal Communications Commission has begun blocking devices containing what it calls “foreign surveillance chips,” the first use of authority allowing the agency to act against products with computer chips from companies deemed potential national-security threats.
The chip named by the FCC is the HiVision Hi3516CV610 UHD Smart Vision SoC, which processes data from camera sensors for products such as home-security cameras and dashcams. The agency has not disclosed which specific gadgets it blocked or provided further details about its decision.
The move expands the FCC’s role in restricting hardware on national-security grounds. The products affected and the precise basis for treating the chip as a surveillance threat were not specified in the available report.