The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets • Hacker News Board

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#31

Post by ahelwer » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 3:47 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #23

assblaster wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the first ssid was someone's attempt at being edgy.

The second is far more "edgy" Believe people (individuals, groups) when they tell you who they are.

Meanwhile there are two separate Nazi references in the SSIDs of my friend's building. This is, frankly, an idiotic line of discussion. I mean, smearing Chinese students (oh I forgot, you said "not generalizing" as though that means anything at all [yes, you were generalizing otherwise what is the relevance?]) because you saw some SSIDs, really!

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#32

Post by cryptokernel » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

Ooohh. What secrets are there in Boston, I wonder? https://coincircle.com/l/50VVxbObg3

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#33

Post by sitkack » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

ben7799 wrote: post #10

Kind of puts getting recruiting emails from Huawei about their imminent Boston office opening in a new light. Just seeing their executives get charged with international crimes is enough to avoid replying.

I wouldn't want to work for a corp that doesn't have the right political muscle to avoid the charges. Halliburton, Exxon, Boeing, HSBC, etc, won't be charged.

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#34

Post by jimrhods23 » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

jhpriestley wrote: post #18

ravenstine wrote: post #16

China has some areas where they innovate, but they primarily excel at copying .

All innovation starts with copying what came before. This is why liberal IP laws are so important to innovation. HN readers seem to understand this basic point quite well unless China is involved.

The converse of liberal IP laws is that once a company gets enough money and resources, they can just poach smaller companies for ideas, before they get any real traction.

Less innovation will happen because more people will be secretive (since there are less protections) or we will end up with a few large companies owning everything.

You also can't deny the fact that the US is probably the most innovative country in the world and has fairly strict IP laws.

China has very lax IP laws and most companies end up just copying, because nobody wants to risk capital for R&D if it's just going to get copied by someone.

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#35

Post by mdeeks » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 3:59 PM UTC

ycombonator wrote: post #13

I live in an area with a lot of newly arrived Chinese grad students. Not generalizing but many of the WiFi ssids I see are : chinanumbaone , df26(one day I realized this is carrier killer missile)

The first one is an online gaming meme. It was a hilarious (and highly inappropriate!) clip from H1Z1 where a guy starts shouting “Taiwan number one” at some Chinese players. If you google it you will find it as a first result. Nothing nefarious with that ssid

Edit: here is the clip. Skip to 1:30 https://youtu.be/xN0vUlljX0I

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#36

Post by alanwong » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 4:11 PM UTC

slackfan wrote: post #26

Inkstone News, owned by the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba Group writes an article about what a US official says. Hmmm...

And?

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#37

Post by xvector » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

alanwong wrote: post #36

slackfan wrote: post #26

Inkstone News, owned by the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba Group writes an article about what a US official says. Hmmm...

And?

They can’t be trusted? Chinese news is a farce.

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#38

Post by mirajshah » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

ycombonator wrote: post #13

I live in an area with a lot of newly arrived Chinese grad students. Not generalizing but many of the WiFi ssids I see are : chinanumbaone , df26(one day I realized this is carrier killer missile)

If you or anyone else are not generalizing how are WiFi SSIDs relevant to anything?

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#39

Post by C1sc0cat » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

sailfast wrote: post #9

neilv wrote: post #2

I'm a bit uncomfortable with ideas like this being promoted in the popular press so much recently. Spy-vs-spy is something that, for better or worse, nations do. It seems a complicated and delicate matter, and outside the experience of most of us. In the Boston area, we have a wealth of colleagues, neighbors, and friends who arrived here from around the world. We welcome and appreciate them. Ordinary people suspectin…

I agree that general "All Chinese are spying on you!" is not a helpful message, but nation-state espionage, generally, is not a bad thing to be aware of overall. The article also doesn't seem to fear-monger so much as call out recent espionage attempts while also citing the difficulty of detection because most folks are here for the right reasons. As for "leave it to the professionals", you left out a key component f…

Would not anyone working in that sort of area not have been vetted and given guidance on what to look for.

Re: The US says Chinese spies are targeting Boston for its tech secrets

#40

Post by sandworm101 » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

slackfan wrote: post #26

Inkstone News, owned by the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba Group writes an article about what a US official says. Hmmm...

Yup. An article is only on part of any media campaign. I think it also safe to assume this HN discussion is being cataloged, if not actively manipulated, by those who created this article.