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Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?

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Re: Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?

#21

Post by msie »

recampbell wrote: post #14
msie wrote: post #8

Paranoia will destroy ya. Maybe you shouldn't trust anything you didn't build.

No, just don't trust those who have proven themselves untrustworthy.

Yes, that extends to US-manufacturers as well as the Chinese.

If you are dealing with sensitive information then you should be doing some security audit of all the software, hardware and personnel that touch that information. This article adds nothing new and is close to being hysterical about Chinese manufacturers. I don't deal with sensitive information so I have less to worry about when it comes to where my USB key is made.

Re: Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?

#23

Post by msie »

Excerpt:

Do I think this is happening? I honestly don't know. I have no proof. What I do know though is that it's easy to do, hard to detect, and the Chinese government appears to be engaging in a massive IT espionage. That's a worrisome combination.

If I were in charge of any enterprise where I thought I had any reason to think that these Chinese authorities might be interested in what I was doing, I'd stop buying Chinese computer products today. Until this issue of Chinese cyber-espionage has been cleared up and cleaned up, I simply couldn't justify buying or using hardware that might be working against me. If you consider it for a minute, I think you'll agree.

Who is his audience? Dumb heads of IT?

Re: Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?

#24

Post by jrockway »

msie wrote: post #23

Excerpt: Do I think this is happening? I honestly don't know. I have no proof. What I do know though is that it's easy to do, hard to detect, and the Chinese government appears to be engaging in a massive IT espionage. That's a worrisome combination. If I were in charge of any enterprise where I thought I had any reason to think that these Chinese authorities might be interested in what I was doing, I'd stop buying C…

Don't you know that a Chinese-made circuit board can take over your processor and network card to steal your information? If not, clearly you know nothing about how computers work!!11!

Oh wait...

Re: Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?

#26

Post by rdtsc »

there wrote: post #25

i guess the us state department was ahead of the curve on banning thinkpads once ibm sold the division to lenovo... http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/19/state-dpartment-bans-leno...

So are there any laptops completely manufactured in US? At least such parts as hard drives, CPUs, motherboards, keyboards, displays...

Re: Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?

#27

Post by pyre »

jrockway wrote: post #24
msie wrote: post #23

Excerpt: Do I think this is happening? I honestly don't know. I have no proof. What I do know though is that it's easy to do, hard to detect, and the Chinese government appears to be engaging in a massive IT espionage. That's a worrisome combination. If I were in charge of any enterprise where I thought I had any reason to think that these Chinese authorities might be interested in what I was doing, I'd stop buying C…

Don't you know that a Chinese-made circuit board can take over your processor and network card to steal your information? If not, clearly you know nothing about how computers work!!11! Oh wait...

That's child's play!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2114/2083501630_d6ecff43e4.jp...

Re: Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?

#29

Post by dnsworks »

lanstein wrote: post #6
Tichy wrote: post #2

I've been wondering the same thing. But would it be so hard to detect? Presumably the information would have to be sent to some server sometime. While I personally don't really monitor outgoing traffic, I think some people do. So they should have noticed something by now?

I have also been thinking about this. Makes me want to null-route any traffic headed for China/Russia. However, I'm much more paranoid about the ripoff Cisco equipment made by Huawei.

Personally I think that the Chinese government is directly, or indirectly behind a number of large botnets. Rather than advertising any particular server to sent data to, why not just open itself up to being consume by the borg^h^h^h^h botnet?

Re: Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?

#30

Post by pyre »

hga wrote: post #15
Tichy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't assume the server is stationed in China.

No, but it's a start. Raises the barrier, especially in a potential future crisis where the PRC is disconnected from the net.

> especially in a potential future crisis where the PRC is disconnected from the net.

I don't follow. How does blocking out-bound traffic from going to China going to help you in a future where China is no longer even connected to the 'net?

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