Live data from Hacker News

Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

reuters.com

81–90 of 171 posts

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#81
post #31
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to agree with the first half... Maybe I'm a bit tin-foil, but I feel like if intelligence was involved they'd just intercept it en route, and wouldn't bother sending it all the way back to the US, especially in a trackable way for that matter...

The second half was more of a joke. I agree with you, they would probably hide it, unless FedEx was dumb enough to mess up and show it when they shouldn't.

Honestly, FedEx has a tracking system... I wouldn't be surprised if they were unable to avoid somehow altering the destination information of the package unless the NSA stole the items off the back of their delivery truck - it may also be FedEx throwing up a canary about government shadiness but...

The truth is probably that FedEx is just terrible at their job and goofed it.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#82

Regardless of the cause of this particular set of events, corporate media engagement as resistance against state actors is the only logical development that can be expected following the Snowden revelations which confirmed that long-theorized postal interception methods are in use. This creates additional pushback for FedEx who now have to prove they aren't working for US intelligence, or face losing additional custo…

> I am kind of surprised that neither Deutsche Post[0] nor ZTO[1] nor SF Express[2] shares are up on the news.

Why would they be up on the news? They're just as likely to be engaging in the same behavior, only for a different set of government actors.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#83
post #72

Packages were probably getting a free "upgrade". The same upgrade that cost Cisco billions in revenue over the past 5 years. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/photos-of-an-nsa...

The Huawei spokesperson said they contained important commercial documents, not equipment:

“The recent experiences where important commercial documents sent via FedEx were not delivered to their destination, and instead were either diverted to, or were requested to be diverted to, FedEx in the United States, undermines our confidence,” Joe Kelly, a spokesman for Huawei, told Reuters.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#84
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blacklisting Huawei is for national security reasons not because of the trade war. Because of the trade war the US has stopped turning a blind eye to misdeeds from China and state backed Chinese companies.

It’s just a bargaining chip. If China meets some of Trumps demands, be prepared to watch all these security reasons disappear like snow on a sunny day.

Basing an argument on a hypothetical future event isn't very convincing.

>The order, which will not name specific countries or companies, has been under consideration for more than a year but has repeatedly been delayed, the sources said, asking not to be named because the preparations remain confidential. It could be delayed again, they said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei-tech-exc...

Is it your position that Huawei is not a national security threat?

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#85
post #82

Regardless of the cause of this particular set of events, corporate media engagement as resistance against state actors is the only logical development that can be expected following the Snowden revelations which confirmed that long-theorized postal interception methods are in use. This creates additional pushback for FedEx who now have to prove they aren't working for US intelligence, or face losing additional custo…

> I am kind of surprised that neither Deutsche Post[0] nor ZTO[1] nor SF Express[2] shares are up on the news. Why would they be up on the news? They're just as likely to be engaging in the same behavior, only for a different set of government actors.

Intercepting it in the US or within their own country is one thing. Rerouting a document being sent from Japan to China to the US multiple times is most certainly not a common thing mail services would do for intelligence agencies.

Getting a private company operating in a foreign country to do your intelligence work so blatantly is certainly news worthy. Maybe not stock price shifting news though.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#86
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s just a bargaining chip. If China meets some of Trumps demands, be prepared to watch all these security reasons disappear like snow on a sunny day.

Basing an argument on a hypothetical future event isn't very convincing. >The order, which will not name specific countries or companies, has been under consideration for more than a year but has repeatedly been delayed, the sources said, asking not to be named because the preparations remain confidential. It could be delayed again, they said. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei-tech-exc... Is it your…

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48392021

Huawei is probably a security threat but that isn’t new nor relevant. My position is that this is a transparent attempt to gain leverage at the negotiating table.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#87
Air shipping from any island in APAC is tricky, speaking as someone on an island in APAC. There are only X number of flights and sometimes things go to places you wouldn't expect based on whatever prioritization rules drive FedEx's optimization algorithm that day. This costs my lab and our hospital dearly, so I sort of sympathize. But I also know a FedEx pilot who flew this area for decades and explained their end of the problem as well. It's a hard optimization problem.

For example: it may have gone to Alaska, but that's actually closer to Japan and China than any of their other hubs.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So they're confirming that the images are customer data, which makes them authentic. If they weren't authentic then they wouldn't be customer information, no? I don't think that assumption works. Reuters asked for specific customer information: in particular, whether the records were valid. Answering in the affirmative or negative is divulging customer data, and FedEx would be wise to avoid doing so whether or not…

You're right, I skipped over the "decline to make any comment" part. But still, "this is not a valid receipt" doesn't reveal data about a customer transaction.

But then when the reporter comes back a few days later with a different receipt that _is_ valid and FedEx tries to give the canned response about not revealing customer transaction data... they inadvertently have. Because if it wasn’t customer transaction data then they would have simply said as much, as they did the last time.

Companies always respond with “no comment” for a good reason: to prevent people from drawing incorrect conclusions by reading between the lines as you are doing now.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#89
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basing an argument on a hypothetical future event isn't very convincing. >The order, which will not name specific countries or companies, has been under consideration for more than a year but has repeatedly been delayed, the sources said, asking not to be named because the preparations remain confidential. It could be delayed again, they said. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei-tech-exc... Is it your…

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48392021 Huawei is probably a security threat but that isn’t new nor relevant. My position is that this is a transparent attempt to gain leverage at the negotiating table.

The timing is certainly intentional and designed to improve the US's position on both trade and national security. There is more than one variable at play. And I agree that the black list can go away after negotiations. But only if those negotiations ensure the US feels secure in its national security.

Re: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages 'diverted'

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there was nobody who thought about it. We had a similar situation in Russia. A mobile operator was cooperating with government to hack into activists' Telegram accounts. They disabled SMS service for a user and then requested a password restore using SMS, intercepted it and got access. But they forgot to delete this information from their internal systems, so when the user called support, they told them that…

Alternatively someone was forced to do something he didn’t believe in and purposefully didn’t erase all his tracks.

Or it could just be that like internet packets the fastest route between A and B isn’t always the shortest, especially if we are talking Anchorage and northeast Asia.
Post reply on HN