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

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

#61

Post by seppin »

jplayer01 wrote: post #25
jhpriestley wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except China as a state isn't our ally or friend. Their interests lie primarily in furthering their own political and military power, and secondarily benefiting their own population. They're more than eager to steal technology, then use that new-found knowledge and ability combined with massive government subsidies to drown out foreign competitors locally and abroad.

Don't forget brutally repressing their citizens, which accounts to a large % of world population.

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

#62

Post by DataWorker »

alanwong wrote: post #58
bilbo0s wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not cataloging this discussion or actively manipulating it... ??? You just did. I know that likely read like I was trying to be snarky, but I wasn't.

No I don't find you snarky. I'm just confused. Are you saying that by engaging in a discussion about an article I posted in an online forum I'm "cataloging" and "actively manipulating" it? Am I "cataloging" a discussion if I tweet an article and reply to the responses? Am I "actively manipulating" a Reddit discussion if I post a link on the site and... respond to the comments? I've been doing both my whole career.

“You and your colleagues” makes it sound like you have a comment crew.

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

#63

Post by toss1 »

neilv wrote: post #24
mieseratte wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> kicking in doors of houses that are not on fire, etc. I don't follow your metaphor.

For example, treating a coworker poorly because of what country they're from, or what religion. Or worse, especially when unstable people get riled up by right-wing outlets.

Of course being treated unfairly and as a group sucks, and is generally stupid.

However, when a society maintains such a universal "your IP is up for grabs" approach to business from the smallest fabricator to the top levels of government, and the govt is noticed to have a top level program targeting a region's business, that's not prejudice, it is established fact.

Moreover, getting the word out on such issues is exactly what you advocate; it is a part of the 'spy-vs-spy' people doing their job.

The network of suppliers is extremely extensive, and expecting the CIA to squander time individually contacting every single sub-subcontractor, or even only the set of ITAR-registered producers is silly.

I would go so far as to say that the threat against you even from overt discrimination is less than the threat from our society being undermined by an unopposed attack on its foundations.

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

#64

Post by alanwong »

DataWorker wrote: post #62
alanwong wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I don't find you snarky. I'm just confused. Are you saying that by engaging in a discussion about an article I posted in an online forum I'm "cataloging" and "actively manipulating" it? Am I "cataloging" a discussion if I tweet an article and reply to the responses? Am I "actively manipulating" a Reddit discussion if I post a link on the site and... respond to the comments? I've been doing both my whole career.

“You and your colleagues” makes it sound like you have a comment crew.

Thanks. A reply button wasn't available until just now, so I had edited my original comment and added a note.

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

#65

Post by [deleted] »

magduf wrote: post #45
jplayer01 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except China as a state isn't our ally or friend. Their interests lie primarily in furthering their own political and military power, and secondarily benefiting their own population. They're more than eager to steal technology, then use that new-found knowledge and ability combined with massive government subsidies to drown out foreign competitors locally and abroad.

>Their interests lie primarily in furthering their own political and military power, and secondarily benefiting their own population. How exactly is that different from the US? I don't see US politicians in power trying to do things to benefit their own population, such as by providing universal healthcare.

[deleted]

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

#66

Post by cryoshon »

of course they're targeting the Boston area; our city is the country's nexus of research and development in a plethora of fields, our culture is welcoming to foreigners at a time when most areas of the US are positively hateful, and we're large enough that expats can find at least a few others from their home country if they so choose. it's the perfect place to learn and network whether you're a spy or a jobseeker.

my main question is what can we realistically do about the problem of chinese spying while preserving the integrity of our institutions here. we have chinese expats sprinkled heavily into all of our research groups, tech groups, you name it -- and it is my assumption that the overwhelming majority of these people are innocent of any crime, so it wouldn't be acceptable to subject them to additional scrutiny. these people are valuable members of our teams and we're lucky to have them in the quantity that we do.

i'm not sure what the right move is here -- it's just my nightmare that the federal government / FBI implements some hamfisted policy that damages Boston's primary economic activities.

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

#68

Post by sailfast »

neilv wrote: post #14
sailfast wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

When I said "leave it to the professionals", I meant to cover the workers indirectly when I said "corporate security". Corporate security personnel shouldn't be getting operational info from popular press.

Agreed, but corporate security is also not out at the bar on a Friday. One would hope that facilities security folks would at a minimum be briefing people, but that stuff costs money, and probably doesn't happen as much as it should.

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

#69

Post by wavefunction »

ahelwer wrote: post #31
wavefunction wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

I think those NAZI SSIDs are indicative of your friend's neighbors as well.

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

#70

Post by sailfast »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #39
sailfast wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've found that people in many areas of work are given guidance and training then either: a) forget over time b) ignore the policy because they think they know better c) ignore the policy because it is inconvenient (this is my favorite!) d) ignore the policy because it is personally advantageous to them (either for reputation, money, etc)

Reminders never hurt (assuming they are reminders and not over the top bigoted screeds)

So many people think they understand what the impacts are if they bend some of these rules, or ignore them a bit for convenience. I would argue that most of the time, unless the stakes are consistently high, they do not.

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