Why Huawei Gives the US and Its Allies Security Nightmares (technologyreview.com) 346
Perhaps the most insightful piece that sums up why the U.S. and its allies are apprehensive of using Huawei's products. Six reasons, we are just highlighting the pointers, click on the source story to read the description:
1. There could be "kill switches" in Huawei equipment.
2. ... That even close inspections miss.
3. Back doors could be used for data snooping.
4. The rollout of 5G wireless networks will make everything worse.
5. Chinese firms will ship tech to countries in defiance of a US trade embargo.
6. Huawei isn't as immune to Chinese government influence as it claims to be.
1. There could be "kill switches" in Huawei equipment.
2. ... That even close inspections miss.
3. Back doors could be used for data snooping.
4. The rollout of 5G wireless networks will make everything worse.
5. Chinese firms will ship tech to countries in defiance of a US trade embargo.
6. Huawei isn't as immune to Chinese government influence as it claims to be.
More reasons (Score:4, Informative)
7. It's competition to US products.
8. People with Huawei equipment can be spied upon by the Chinese government and not as easily by the US government.
Re:More reasons (Score:5, Insightful)
What US products? We have systematically destroyed 99% of our production capacity for the components that go into cell phones by allowing corporations to fire everyone and move production to other countries which allow workers to be so badly treated that they're slaves in all but name only.
The only part the USA plays in making a cell phone is some manufacturers assembling the parts here in order to get an "Assembled in the USA" label. We can't make enough of the components for any cell phone to qualify as "Made in the USA".
Re:More reasons (Score:5, Interesting)
They are not "slaves in all but name only". The working conditions are pretty good in a lot of those Chinese factories, the workers make enough money to send home to their rural families, and despite the sensationalist claims, suicide rates are roughly equivalent to the non-factory worker population. I would say that it is far more likely that your vegetables were picked by someone in the USA that is functionally a slave or that your clothes are made by some child in a sweatshop than your phone is made by a "slave". Indeed, one of the reasons why the work has moved to China is the presence of so much SKILLED labour all concentrated in one place.
China isn’t perfect, the factories often try to get away with shit, not everyone there is acting in good faith...but I could say exactly the same thing about a lot of places in North America. I think the real fear here is that despite everything, we AREN'T any better than the Chinese, and it offends our moral sensibilities that we might not have any moral high ground to stand on when it comes to workers and their rights.
Re: More reasons (Score:2, Informative)
"it offends our moral sensibilities that we might not have any moral high ground to stand on when it comes to workers and their rights."
Everyone knows that in Soviet America workers have no rights.
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Prison? Try "re-education camp" if you're low enough on totem pole, and "being the star of televised execution" if you're high enough.
Seriously, this is never in the news in the West for propagandistic reasons, but televised executions of higher ups that were in some kind of opposition to Xi's policies and rising of his cult of personality have been ongoing for quite a few years now in China.
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Exactly! This isn't about the trade war at all.
This is about national security, and the top competitors are European.
I don't see why it is controversial that we should prefer to have sensitive equipment in our communications systems come from our actual friends and allies, instead of from countries that are politically hostile to our basic values.
The biggest thing is that civics and civil rights in Europe are similar to the rights in the US, so there is less risk of activities that would be harmful to our w
Re:More reasons (Score:4, Informative)
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Instead of speculation why not find out?
Huawei will let governments inspect their code and publish known good firmware hashes. Does Cisco?
Re: More reasons (Score:4, Insightful)
Number 8 there is the big one.
The US could not care less about the actual hardware security, they just want access to the equipment no matter where it is.
Huawei has systematically refused to provide that access
So, the US advocates against people using them "for security reasons"
GCSB (Score:2)
Objective of Bureau
The objective of the Bureau, in performing its functions, is to contribute toâ"
(a)
the national security of New Zealand; and
(b)
the international relations and well-being of New Zealand; and
(c)
the economic well-being of New Zealand.
Our security sevices now deal in corporate welfare as well as national security. Perhaps they always did but since snowden they
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Nokia at least is well documented to have made deals with US to insert spy gear into networks delivered to Soviet Union. That was in fact critical to getting required export licenses, since there was US technology in those networks.
We Finns have to be flexible both ways to be able to exist with longer border with Russia than entire of rest of EU combined while remaining outside NATO.
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The USA government also cancelled a contract AT&T had with Huawei where they would retail their smartphones. Huawei is currently the #2 smartphone vendor in the world, #1 is Samsung, #3 is Apple (used to be #2 last year).
Huawei also competes with Cisco and Juniper in router equipment.
Re: More reasons (Score:4, Informative)
Basically everywhere except in China since in China ownership of a company shall be Chinese.
Re: Cisco routers. (Score:3, Insightful)
LOL the USSR didn't buy that software, they stole it. And yes, the software was booby trapped by the CIA, who deliberately fed one of Russia's spies falty software, but it didn't do anything that you mention here. The software was built for industrial sabotage on a spectacular scale:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1455559/CIA-plot-led-to-huge-blast-in-Siberian-gas-pipeline.html
The USSR was all about stolen technology, and this is just one example of them taking more than they tho
Re: Cisco routers. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you ask me, the Europeans would have to be crazy to allow themselves to be overly dependent on any of the US, Russia, North Africa, or the Middle East for fuel to keep warm in Winter. But they are capable of figuring that our for themselves I think.
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There's no deflection here. He's merely pointing out the obvious. Your "discussion" is hinged on the childish assumption that "US has engaged in unconscionable business dealings" is somehow relevant to the discussion, as if there are other partners who don't.
When factor exists to same or greater level for everyone else involved, it becomes largely irrelevant.
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There is no "obvious" here. The talking point that Europe is "overly dependent" on Russian gas is just that - a talking point. The fact is that Russia is at least as much dependent on European money and tech that it gets in exchange for its gas, and that the gas trade has done much more for improving the strategic safety of Europe than, for example, the US military presence.
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Either the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is built or the German economy will tumble. As will the economy of the Netherlands. Even the UK will be impacted. You know why? Because the natural gas wells in the Netherlands are drying up. As is North Sea gas. There will be a capacity deficit in the near future, like the next 5 years unless Nord Stream 2 is built. The alternative for the Germans, I guess, is burning coal. Since Germany has been closing all their nuclear reactors.
If you think the Germans will take the hit
I'm surprised it doesn't go the other way. (Score:5, Interesting)
Every point made here is just as true from the other side too. I know China is investing heavily in developing high-end microprocessor designs and manufacturing capability, but shouldn't it make strategic sense for them to also spend as much money as it takes to purge their country of Microsoft? Windows Update could be easily repurposed for espionage, and even if the US government doesn't control it yet, they could surely do so if they situation was desperate enough. I'd expect China to be throwing huge piles of money into transitioning away from Windows entirely for all military and government functions, and all major companies too. They even tried with Red Flag Linux, and that ended badly. China is striving for hardware manufacturing capability, but seems to be unconcerned over software.
Cisco = Huawei (Score:5, Interesting)
Cisco does exactly the same.
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Oh it has.
The Chinese government still thinks they're clever for stealing US tech.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1455559/CIA-plot-led-to-huge-blast-in-Siberian-gas-pipeline.html
That's just a hint of what goes on.
The reason the US government doesn't steal foreign tech and give it to US companies is because they know it's an attack vector like a flash drive labeled honeymoon left in a bank parking lot.
Re:I'm surprised it doesn't go the other way. (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason the US government doesn't steal foreign tech
Except the US government has done [theintercept.com] exactly that [bbc.com]:
The report recommends “a multi-pronged, systematic effort to gather open source and proprietary information through overt means, clandestine penetration (through physical and cyber means), and counterintelligence” (emphasis added). In particular, the DNI’s report envisions “cyber operations” to penetrate “covert centers of innovation” such as R&D facilities.
The level of American hypocrisy makes me vomit every day.
Re:I'm surprised it doesn't go the other way. (Score:5, Interesting)
>"I'd expect China to be throwing huge piles of money into transitioning away from Windows entirely for all military and government functions, and all major companies too. They even tried with Red Flag Linux, and that ended badly."
You are correct that they shouldn't trust closed US software/hardware (yet we probably shouldn't either). Although their attempt with using Linux didn't end "badly", it just ended because for whatever reason, they decided not to pursue it. At the time, it was probably less about security than a bluff to try and force Microsoft to lower prices and/or include certain "features", coupled with their unwillingness to port their applications to the platform. Actually, it could have been a huge win for them had they continued the process.
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Yes. And that tells me exactly what the US government expects to be to do to a "US made" phone.
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The US Government isn't switching to US-made phone ICs, they're switching to European ones.
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If you didn't before, now you see one of the reasons why so many of us hate Microsoft, have shunned Windows 10, and moved to Linux: when you don't have control over the machine, the machine can instead control you. With Windows 10, the only 'control' you have over Windows Update is to stop and disable the Service completely; you don't have any ability, like in the past, to pick-and-choose which updates get downloaded and installed. Therefore you're no
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I suspect it didn't end badly: the Chinese probably got full access to Windows source code and they negotiated a deal with Microsoft, so that Windows Updates were controlled by the Chinese side, so that Microsoft couldn't push backdoors at will.
A win-win situation for all the involved parties: Microsoft still can sell Windows to China, the Chinese ca
US govt propaganda (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why we are to be afraid. Guess what, your mobile mandatory location identifying device (as required by US law) is a leash.
Re:US govt propaganda (Score:4, Insightful)
All popular computer applications are spyware now. Everything is data-mining you as much as possible. It's part of society. The correct thing to do is ditch everything and start from scratch. Build a new internet, new protocols, that use mandatory encryption for every action. The military already does that, but civilians are stuck with the shitty version of the internet.
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Appears so [debian.org]! Quite a food fight there. I wonder if the bug was ever reopened... Talk about security nightmares...
Re: US govt propaganda (Score:3)
This is the real point. Folks like us (well me, anyway, i don't know about all you zombies) are just a resource for which governments and big corporations are competing.
Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA and it (Score:5, Insightful)
1. There most likely are "kill switches" in $USBRAND equipment.
2. ... That even close inspections miss.
3. Back doors are already being used for data snooping.
4. The rollout of 5G wireless networks will make everything worse.
5. US firms will ship tech to countries wherever the fuck they want regardless of anything else.
6. $USBRAND isn't immune to US government influence, period.
I fail to see a problem with Huawei in particular.
Re:Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA and (Score:5, Informative)
pretty much, everyone in the intelligence industry worry about the stuff they are doing to other countries being done back.
Look at what they are saying that other places are likely doing, and you get a pretty good list of what they are doing to other places.
Re:Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA and (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA and (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA and (Score:5, Insightful)
3. Back doors are already being used for data snooping.
Hell, FRONT doors are already being used for data snooping. Well you clicked "I agree", right?
Re:Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA and (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA a (Score:2, Informative)
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/cisco-backdoor-hardcoded-accounts-software,37480.html
Kinda says it all...
Re: Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA an (Score:5, Informative)
So no, the US are definitely no more allies of Europe than China is.
You have no sense of proportion. China lives by completely different rules. They have no respect for freedom of speech or democracy, quite the opposite, and they don't care if other countries do. The US has its flaws, but I'll take a flawed democracy over an oppressing dictatorship any day.
And beyond ecinomics... well, if you're European, it's not like China is out to burn your home, rape your wife, kill your dog. They're on a different hemisphere for chrissake, there's noting to gain for them from indaving another, regardless of whether that's Europe or US. (FWIW, the only country that has a habit of doing that post-WW2, regularly, is the US.)
No, maybe they'll just destroy all your infrastructure that's connected to the internet, including telecommuncations, power supply, and everything else that's needed in a modern society. Japan's being in a different hemisphere didn't stop them from starting an all out war with the US. If the western countries tries to do the right thing and stop China from taking areas from smaller countries in Asia then a war is not an impossibility. I assume you know that China is already doing that by creating artificial islands with military bases.
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They have no respect for freedom of speech
Neither does Europe.
Re: Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA a (Score:2, Interesting)
China lives by completely different rules. They have no respect for freedom of speech or democracy, quite the opposite, and they don't care if other countries do
You're cherry picking.
There's no intrinsic value in the word "democracy" alone, it's value lies in what it entails: the fact that everyone gets to have their say in important decisions concerning the very fabric of their lives. If democracy is flawed to the point where unless you're rich, you've essentially been tricked out of your right to participate (as is the case for the US for example), then whatever value you had goes out the window.
Don't talk to me about "Freedom of speech" while you have people lik
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Don't talk to me about "Freedom of speech" while you have people like Assange bullied and prosecuted for what they said.
Again, no sense of proportions. You have Assange, I raise you one million Chinese Uyghurs being incarcerated in "re-education camps" in China for their religious beliefs.
Re: Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA an (Score:4, Insightful)
it's not like China is out to burn your home, rape your wife, kill your dog. They're on a different hemisphere for chrissake, there's noting to gain for them from indaving another, regardless of whether that's Europe or US. (FWIW, the only country that has a habit of doing that post-WW2, regularly, is the US.)
While I agree with your statement that the US has a nasty habit of invading foreign countries, China did a similar thing to Tibet [wikipedia.org] "post-WW2".
Also, Russia shares the US habit of invading foreign countries, as demonstrated for example in Afghanistan and the Ukraine.
So, the basic lesson is: Don't trust any equipment that was manufactured or shipped through one of these aggressive nations.
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The hilarious part is that the US doesn't go off invading anybody without having our European allies at our side.
France opposed the Iraq War because they didn't think that the US was sending enough troops to occupy and maintain order; they didn't want to help unless it was done right! Can't blame them, a lot of Americans felt the same way about it.
Then all these French leftists get online and are all like, "schna, schna, schna" with their noses at the clouds gargling wine while feeling self-important, with
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"isn't immune to US government influence" is a gross understatement (I assume you were being ironic!). We know that US companies up and down the stack have been clandestinely legally compelled to compromise user security in favor of national security goals.
Software: NSA-designed Ecliptic Curve encryption algorithm adopted by companies (RSA, Microsoft, Cisco) despite widespread suspicion that they were designed with backdoors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ...and then all the stuff Snowden exposed. Heck,
Re: Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA an (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're the average American (or European, for that matter), you're living paycheck to paycheck, your perspective of retiring at the end of your useful shelf life (~65, give or take) is practically zero, your children's chance of a useful education is degrading (...if you're European; it's already essentially zero of you're US), and the only perspective your offspring have in their life is to live through & possibly, maybe, try to clean up the mess the big winners of your generation are creating for all of us.
In that case, China is not your primary enemy. Your own government is, together (or better: led by?) those who Have. That's what you should be worrying about primarily.
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Re: Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA a (Score:3)
The US has secret courts, gag orders, national security letters, prison camps outside of court's reach, and the largest per-person incarceration rate in the world.
Go on, make my day, tell me more about Hungary. I've been there. Recently.
Re:Why [cisco|intel|...$USBRAND] gives $NOTUSA and (Score:4, Interesting)
American ally
I believe the word you are looking for is "vassal". There are no more American allies. An ally is assumed to have some degree of independence and usually has equal status. A vassal, on the other hand, is one who never disagrees and always does as they are told. Kind of like that person we all know at work who is a complete idiot and yet somehow is always the boss's favorite and always gets promoted. That isn't the boss' friend - that IS your boss and if you cross him/her/it, you will find out pretty sharpish who is going to be transferred/fired. Hint - it's not them.
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That only describes the non-European allies. Sure, allies like Egypt and Pakistan receive aid payments to keep them on our "side."
But our European allies are true friends, with a bond forged in blood and fortified with blood numerous times.
I know that really torques the Anti-Americans in Europe, and the Anti-Europeans in America, but it is still true, it is still the prevailing consensus on both sides.
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In exchange we formed the EU and are killing ourselves.
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By definition, vassals send tribute and provide military assets.
The US accepts no tribute, and receives none. And even pays for most of the NATO military defense.
Find a book, learn you some history. "Vassal" doesn't mean, "has an ally that is larger."
The real reason (Score:5, Informative)
7. Huawei phones lack the backdoors that allow the US intelligence community to spy on its own people.
That's it, really. They don't trust us, not at all. You really have to wonder why? Why do they feel the need to spy on us and know what we're thinking? Our elected government made this illegal, and the intelligence community promptly broke the law and lied about it.
On March 12, 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress that intel officials were not collecting mass data on tens of millions of Americans. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden soon revealed material that proved Clapper's testimony false: The government had been gathering and storing data from ordinary Americans' phone records, email and Internet use. [wikileaks.org]
They don't feel any obligation to us at all. It's OK if they break the laws we passed with our elected government and lie to our faces - they don't feel safe if we can keep secrets from them. Fuck democracy, they have wars to start. [youtu.be] If we all started buying Huawei they would feel very unsafe indeed.
Re:The real reason (Score:5, Interesting)
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That sounds good, but only if you have no clue who makes the alternatives.
For example, your Samsung isn't from the US.
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The US intelligence community doesn't have backdoors into all phones. They have backdoors into the phone carriers for certain, though. AT&T, etc have fiber optic runs to spy closets where audio is recorded and speech-to-text tools are used to help search for key words. Snowden wasn't even the first to know about it. I remember when Shia Labeouf talked about it during an interview where he worked with the feds to prepare for a movie. He mentioned government spying, and the feds played him back a recordin
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The reason it was recent is that Huawei is pretty new. Their market position was developed instantly, because they're part of the Chinese government.
Your comments about the US intelligence access at the network level are important to understanding this though.
The US government can spy on things just fine if you have a Huawei phone. So it isn't about that.
And it seems basically reasonable that it is a security risk for a foreign power with very very very different laws and civics to be in a position to disru
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Re:The real reason (Score:4, Insightful)
The US intelligence community is not elected. They have gone rogue and are not under the control of the democratically elected government. "This is like a spy novel." [youtube.com].
These are the same people who lied us into Iraq. In what possible way are they trustworthy?
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Bullshit, before the war the CIA assessment was leaked to the public.
It was purely one of the elected branches that was lying, and they control all the parts of the intelligence community that make public statements. The actual intelligence documents are only provided to different parts of government, not to the public; and Congress leaked it so people would know the Truth. It was only because of our un-elected intelligence community that we found out the truth!
My advice, stop reading so many spy novels, an
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The repressive totalitarian regime can be trusted to act like a repressive totalitarian regime. Democratically elected governments change course regularly, one day you're their friend, the next they're putting tariffs on you for national security reasons while being all chummy with some of those repressive totalitarian governments.
How are any of these bullet points... (Score:2)
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US made products
He asked about iPhones. You know where iPhones are made, right? Which part of the US is this place [google.com]?
Could, could be and so on is the best we have? (Score:5, Interesting)
I set it's a bunch of "possibilities"...
"Could be"..."Could" and so on...
Chinese firms will ship tech to countries in defiance of a US trade embargo.
Why should foreign entity obey US law is I may ask?
. Huawei isn't as immune to Chinese government influence as it claims to be
Let's remember we have the NSA that has done more or less the same, even in defiance of US law...
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Chinese firms will ship tech to countries in defiance of a US trade embargo.
Why should foreign entity obey US law is I may ask?
They don't have to obey US law. However, the US is within its rights to say that it will not allow US trade with a firm that breaks its embargo. These days almost every non-trivial item has components that are built/designed/licenced by US firms. So you can trade with, e.g. Iran, but your firm will no longer be able to get supplies of US components, software, equipment, etc. and the US will refuse to trade with you or any of your suppliers. Which pretty much means you're screwed if you trade with a country
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Yeah, especially when it is websites in Asia doing the claiming on behalf of the US. ;)
None of this matters (Score:3)
Huawei / Chinese meddling is not in any way more or less suspect than Cisco / US meddling. Everybody is a suspect. Why would/should it be otherwise?
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Actually it is different. With Huawei we all instinctively know this to be the case because... China. With Cisco we've already seen proof.
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Well, Ivan, see, it is like this; if you're smart enough not to trust anybody, then you should prefer equipment made by companies who are under the same type of government system that you are.
Americans and Europeans have mostly compatible civics, and so if the Europeans do something really naughty to me, they risk being punished by their own government. Same in reverse; if an American company does something really naughty to Europeans, they'll get in trouble.
If a Chinese, or Russian, company does something
Chinese Food Security Nightmares (Score:3, Funny)
1. There could be "poison" in Chinese food. ... That even close inspections miss.
2.
3. Chinese waiters could be used for snooping.
4. The rollout of Chinese restaurants will make everything worse.
5. Chinese restaurants will ship food to countries in defiance of a US trade embargo.
6. P.F. Changs isn't as immune to Chinese government influence as it claims to be.
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This is why most Americans already switched to Thai food.
Which is why Thai restaurants stock chopsticks. In Thailand, chopsticks are only used to eat Chinese food. But they know their American customers are switching away from Chinese food, so they stock the chopsticks.
So basically it comes down to (Score:4, Insightful)
"could"
There could be all that stuff in products from other countries, too. Heck, even American products could have these things. Maybe America should just stop trading with everyone and jump incestuously in bed with itself, and hope its own manufacturers are completely honest and transparent, just as they have turned out to be so far in history...
Could indeed... Or maybe you should do it the old fashioned way, and actually find the person guilty before executing them.
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DIY (Score:3)
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I presume you are using a processor without speculative execution?
Without open software AND hardware, it's all just wishful thinking.
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How can speculative execution be exploited if 100% of the code running on the processor is vetted?
How can you know that 100% of the code running on the processor is vetted if you don't have open hardware and software, and/or the machine is network-accessible? There's been remote holes in both network stacks and services in the past, it is illogical to assume that there will not be any in the future.
The golden age of espionage (Score:3)
Worst of all (Score:2)
Why can't human made mechienes be tested by humans (Score:3)
There seems to be a lack of interest in actually testing systems to see if the meet national security guidelines. Believe it or not these things are not black-boxes if people open up the cases, put them in Faraday cages. Monitor what its out put it, and traffic to see where things go, what ports are open....
You can take the chips off the board and be sure they are doing what the specs say they should be doing.
In case of Flash software, you can demand the source review it, and compile it at your country and flash it onto a device.
I know policy makers don't want to use specialists because they are these crazy egg heads who think they know it all, and will often go against their best instincts. But for national security, you probably should trust those people who have studied this stuff and understand the going on. Vs saying it it too technical let ban it.
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A kill switch is actually the least of our worries. All that would do it let people know that there is one. The biggest risk is having an IC integrated in a diode casing (often overlooked because they are normally there for simple surge protection). Or an extra radio broadcaster that you don't know what it is for. These things can bet tested. You don't need to brute force all the methods, if you know what each component suppose to do.
6 reasons? (Score:3)
New "RED DANGER"! (Score:2)
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What a relief, since we all know there was no danger at all during the Cold War, and nothing bad happened to anybody. [/s]
This list doesn't surprise me (Score:2)
We already know from the Snowden leaks that the US government has the capabilities to do most of the things on that list for network gear from the likes of Cisco, HP, Juniper and other US manufacturers. And given how much more power the Chinese have over Chinese companies and their employees (unlike the US, the Chinese government has no problems telling people "do what we want or your family will be executed") its logical to assume China can do everything the US can and more.
That said, what the hell are gov
Why Huawei? (Score:2)
nonsense (Score:2)
Guilty until proven innocent (Score:2)
I don't want to defend Huawei, I couldn't care less, however, this whol
There's Deauthorization on Windows, Too. (Score:5, Interesting)
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All software-as-a-service has an inherent "kill-switch" type of functionality, even when not intended.
Why would an OS-as-a-service be an exception?
hmmm... (Score:2)
All the more reason ... (Score:2)
Corporate Big Brother or Government Big Brother? (Score:2)
The underlying problem remains: average people in the US and China have been painstakingly prepared to accept as a given that their personal information has no real value. So when they learn about this kind of grotesque invasion of privacy, their usual response is to shrug and say something like, "Who cares? The government has better things to do than check out my porn collection". That's a dangerously naive view, but it is a popular one.
It means arguments about how one side's communications tech is jus
This is what you get... (Score:2)
When you basically export your company's entire business overseas.
Especially to a hostile nation...
"China isn't perfect . . ." (Score:2)
Re:happened in India (Score:4, Insightful)
That's a nice piece of fake news, on par with the oft told story about the Soviet "peace" tractors that allegedly "destroyed" a million-strong Chinese invasion force in the 60s with megalasers from low Earth orbit.
I'm sure, however, that had such a thing as you described happened, it would have received ample coverage by the Indian press.
Care to find some links?
Re: (Score:2)
Switches stopped working in Iraq because they drop "bombs" on electrical substations that have, instead of explosives, a giant spool of conductive filament that they spew out, which blows all the fuses and fries equipment that is easy to replace in times of peace, but difficult to replace during a war. This allows the widespread incapacitation of electric grids, and shuts down most land-based communication, with minimal loss of civilian life.
Even if an urban area quickly reroutes their power distribution, i