Comments on: Did China use a tiny chip to infiltrate U.S. companies?

By: CVLR

CVLR — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 02:47:03 +0000

“The fewer computers my private data goes through, the better. No cloud computing for me. Data disabled on my phone, and Wifi off unless needed. No Facebook. No Google. No smart TV. No OnStar. No Internet of Damn Things.”

A fine sentiment. Most of those things I, too, forgo, but some I cannot get away from. I can’t stand desktop GNU/Linux, for instance, though on servers it’s the only game in town, and so if I’m going to trust (for some value of the word) a company for mobile, namely Apple, I figure I’ll have to trust them for desktop also. Tor I have little trust in, though for sociological reasons, not technical ones.

“I worked in OS and network software/firmware a while. I know how the sausage gets made, and I know just what sort of sociopaths and meatheads run those R&D companies.”

Have you written about your experiences?

By: Barnabas

Barnabas — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 11:21:13 +0000

Magic tiny chip aside. I don’t know why China wouldn’t be spying through manufactured hardware and software.

By: Sam J.

Sam J. — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 01:54:17 +0000

If this is not so and there is no embedded spy chip then why did Bloomberg do this? The article seemed very detailed and wasn’t written as if this was a could be situation. Why would they risk their reputation? Maybe they don;t care about it???

By: Harry Jones

Harry Jones — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 19:54:43 +0000

Something like that.

That’s why I don’t hope to eliminate all risk. Not in this universe. But I do mitigate risk. The fewer computers my private data goes through, the better. No cloud computing for me. Data disabled on my phone, and Wifi off unless needed. No Facebook. No Google. No smart TV. No OnStar. No Internet of Damn Things.

Oh, and I absolutely do not trust China.

And of course I run Linux and browse through Tor. On a rather outdated computer.

The risk I cannot eliminate, that I grudgingly accept. The risk I can eliminate, that I eliminate.

I worked in OS and network software/firmware a while. I know how the sausage gets made, and I know just what sort of sociopaths and meatheads run those R&D companies.

By: CVLR

CVLR — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 01:12:57 +0000

“First rule of computer security is: assume the worst. That tells you where the burden of proof should lie.”

When I think of “assume the worst”, I think of every processing unit of any manufacture having baked-in superuser-level backdoors accessible to one or all of a handful of top intelligence agencies and their satellite organizations worldwide; and most of the non-airgapped ones, with Internet access, intermittently transmitting analytics back to their respective mothership.

Is that what you mean?

By: Harry Jones

Harry Jones — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 20:12:40 +0000

First rule of computer security is: assume the worst. That tells you where the burden of proof should lie.

By: Wang Wei Lin

Wang Wei Lin — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 06:08:24 +0000

Ever look at the traffic hitting on your WiFi router when nothing is happening on your side of the network? I’ve thought for years it’s a bad idea to have our political enemy manufacturing our essential technology. A little code and all your traffic is mirrored to a server farm. Totally plausible. You recall the OPM infiltration by the Chinese? It was discovered during a security demo by a large US technology company. The forensics revealed it had been happening for over a year and no one knew. We only heard about it a year after it was uncovered. Now imagine every piece of technology strewn across the globe that’s made by China. The barn door is wide open.

By: Ross

Ross — Sat, 06 Oct 2018 16:05:01 +0000

Apple, Amazon CISO (and I think implicitly Joe Grand) came out against the story. That’s enough for me.

My prior on Bloomberg: I sample Bloomberg everyday and I can tell where they are politically.

But, yeah, I was snookered in by the story in the first hour, and I still think it’d make an excellent movie plot

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Sat, 06 Oct 2018 12:27:32 +0000

So, once again, US policy is being driven by a fraud? By Fake News? At Bloomberg?

I am going to believe Apple and disbelieve Bloomberg.

We are living in a Dark Age of superstition, delusion and illiteracy. And violence.