ZTE Corporation, a global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has become the first Chinese telecom company to be issued with a CC (the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation) security certificate.

TüV Rheinland Nederland B.V., a Netherlands-based international CC security certification firm, awarded ZTE for its security, highlighting the fact that Chinese telecom companies are gaining international recognition for their information technology security. 

The test, which took more than six months to complete, was conducted by Brightsight, a leading information technology security test and evaluation lab in the Netherlands.

It is becoming increasingly common for governments to ensure the security of telecom networks by engaging a third-party to do an evaluation. 

Currently CC is the internationally recognized information technology security certification required. The standard adopted in this certification is IEC/ISO15408, which is also known as the CC standard, or the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation. CC certification is managed by the national security agency of each CC member state. There are 26 CC member states, including European nations, the United States and Japan, as well as emerging countries such as India. 

The CC certification includes the evaluation of technologies such as security performance, loophole analysis, encryption technology and product manual. It also includes systematic evaluations of the entire process from R&D procedure and configuration management to production and shipping.