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Trump declares emergency over IT threats

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Trump declares emergency over IT threats

#16

This is great news. The lack of the government seeming to care about national IT security has been bothering me for years now.

I remember watching a video about how old/antiquated the technology used by the IRS is (i.e. a behemoth computer system built in the 60's)... Our government's IT infrastructure needs a massive overhaul.

Re: Trump declares emergency over IT threats

#17

> The president signed an executive order effectively barring US companies from using foreign telecoms believed to pose a security risk to the country. So let's just back up a little: A Chinese equipment manufacturer left a telnet daemon running on a single version of a single device and a national emergency is declared, Cisco leaves SSH credentials (public and private keys leaked) hard coded into multiple generation…

This is most likely just a political action to put pressure on China. They don't really care if it's hypocritical.

Re: Trump declares emergency over IT threats

#18

> The president signed an executive order effectively barring US companies from using foreign telecoms believed to pose a security risk to the country. So let's just back up a little: A Chinese equipment manufacturer left a telnet daemon running on a single version of a single device and a national emergency is declared, Cisco leaves SSH credentials (public and private keys leaked) hard coded into multiple generation…

I've repeatedly seen a lack of interest in geopolitical issues on HN. This whole thing is akin to "Should the US be reliant on a hardware manufacturer that can be considered a non-independent subsidiary of the Chinese government?" Replace Chinese with Russian, Iranian, North Korean, Saudi Arabian, etc. These are all countries, like China, that would love to have that kind of potential leverage and power over US infrastructure and political processes because of the benefits these would bestow.

I've said in a recent comment: It doesn't matter if Huawei is entirely innocent right now. China is a major competitor to the US as a global power - militarily. politically, economically. If people think they wouldn't at some point in the future use Huawei's ties deep into cellular infrastructure to serve China's needs, they're incredibly naive.

Hell, none of this is unprecedented. The whole debacle with all the ties between Republican representatives or people in Trump's campaign and Russia alone should give pause. Or Russia's meddling in the US election. Or Russia's meddling in Eastern Europe (Ukraine wishes somebody would give a geopolitical shit right now). And somehow Huawei, and by extension China, are supposed to be impartial and innocent and not a potential threat? Really?

Re: Trump declares emergency over IT threats

#20

> The president signed an executive order effectively barring US companies from using foreign telecoms believed to pose a security risk to the country. So let's just back up a little: A Chinese equipment manufacturer left a telnet daemon running on a single version of a single device and a national emergency is declared, Cisco leaves SSH credentials (public and private keys leaked) hard coded into multiple generation…

The US government has been murmuring about security risks of Huawei gear for years now, mostly without citing any particular technical threats. The report of the open telnet server was the first thing a lot of us have seen which gives technical substance to those complaints, but it almost certainly didn't motivate the policy response -- which was, in any case, a continuation of pressure tactics that were already underway, domestically and overseas. For example, Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and NSA, was publicly calling them a security risk as far back as 2013.

Timeline: https://www.computerworlduk.com/security/huawei-controversie...

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