State Dept. Pulls Lenovo PCs from Vital Networks

Citing possible conspiracy fears, the U.S. State Department is pulling computers made by the Chinese company Lenovo from networks that provide access to information vital to national security, The Register reports.

Roughly 900 machines were supposed to be connected to secure networks, the article states, out of 16,000 PCs that were purchased.

The story states that the decision to pull the machines was made after Congress’ U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission expressed concerns that the equipment could be used for espionage – worries Congressman Frank Wolf communicated to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

“The State Department … has now taken the appropriate steps to ensure that classified information is not compromised by the purchase of these new computers,” Wolf told the House appropriations subcommittee yesterday.

The Register reports that Lenovo said the PCs had all been manufactured in North Carolina and Mexico in factories acquired through its purchase of IBM in 2005.

“We know that our computers present no security risk to the U.S. government because we do not install back doors or surveillance tools in our computers,” a company spokeswoman told the AFX newsagency.

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Compiled by Paul Kerstein