NDAA Section 889 Challenges

Section 889 is part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019. The statute imposes new restrictions on the procurement of telecommunications equipment or services from certain companies, and their subsidiaries or affiliates, based on their ties to the Chinese government. In doing so, the regulation expanded the list of forbidden products for federal contractors. The aim of Section 889 is to protect National Security from cyber-attacks carried out by foreign adversaries. The US government has, on numerous occasions, accused the Chinese government of using its telecommunications operators for pernicious purposes – specifically, malicious activity aimed towards the US. According to Robert Bigman, former CISO at the CIA, “this [Section 889] was specifically [created] as a result of intelligence that the US government had”.