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The US government has temporarily eased trade restrictions imposed last week on China's Huawei, a move aimed at minimising disruption for its customers but dismissed by its founder who said the tech firm had prepared for US action.

The US Commerce Department will allow Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to purchase American-made goods in order to maintain existing networks and provide software updates to existing Huawei handsets.

The world's largest telecommunications equipment maker is still prohibited from buying American parts and components to manufacture new products without license approvals that likely will be denied.

The US government said it imposed the restrictions because of Huawei's involvement in activities contrary to national security or foreign policy interests.

The new authorisation is intended to give telecommunications operators that rely on Huawei equipment time to make other arrangements, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement on Monday.

"In short, this license will allow operations to continue for existing Huawei mobile phone users and rural broadband networks," Ross added.

The license, which is in effect until Aug 19, suggests changes to Huawei's supply chain may have immediate, far-reaching and unintended consequences for its customers.

"The goal seems to be to prevent internet, computer and cell phone systems from crashing," said Washington lawyer Kevin Wolf, a former Commerce Department official. "This is not a capitulation. This is housekeeping."

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei on Tuesday said the temporary reprieve move bore little meaning for the company as it had been making preparations for such a scenario.

"The US government's actions at the moment underestimate our capabilities," Ren said in an interview with CCTV, according to a transcript published by the Chinese state broadcaster.

For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services.

But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.

Since 2017, when the NSA lost control of the tool, EternalBlue, it has been picked up by state hackers in North Korea, Russia and, more recently, China, to cut a path of destruction around the world, leaving billions of dollars in damage. But over the past year, the cyberweapon has boomeranged back and is now showing up in the NSA’s own backyard.

It is not just in Baltimore. Security experts say EternalBlue attacks have reached a high, and cybercriminals are zeroing in on vulnerable American towns and cities, from Pennsylvania to Texas, paralysing local governments and driving up costs.

The NSA connection to the attacks on US cities has not been previously reported, in part because the agency has refused to discuss or even acknowledge the loss of its cyberweapon, dumped online in April 2017 by a still-unidentified group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. Years later, the agency and the FBI still do not know whether the Shadow Brokers are foreign spies or disgruntled insiders.

Thomas Rid, a cybersecurity expert at Johns Hopkins University, called the Shadow Brokers episode “the most destructive and costly NSA breach in history,” more damaging than the better-known leak in 2013 from Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor.

“The government has refused to take responsibility, or even to answer the most basic questions,” Rid said. “Congressional oversight appears to be failing. The American people deserve an answer.”

The NSA and FBI declined to comment.