Earlier quoted context omitted.
It has always been true that any computer connected to the internet could be accessed by an unauthorized party, even before the leaks. Disconnect from the internet and nobody is getting in, including the NSA.
Hope you have your bluetooth also turned off
Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
31–40 of 272 posts
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#32I have a friend that works for a chip company and he said he couldn’t get into details but the amount of back doors in communication companies and in chips would scare the shit out of me.
Counterpoint: I actually do work at a chip company and have never heard of any of this internally. Even from the people working on secure biometrics. Neither of these anecdotes proves anything.
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
It has always been true that any computer connected to the internet could be accessed by an unauthorized party, even before the leaks. Disconnect from the internet and nobody is getting in, including the NSA.
> Disconnect from the internet and nobody is getting in, including the NSA. Oh boy. That's some serious delusion in 2020. Wireless cards and higher end network interface cards are independent computers. Your processor has another processor (Intel ME and others) in it. Baseband Management Controllers are also independent computers on their own right. With closed firmware and wireless capabilities, you can never know w…
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#34To me a 'back door' could range from 'don't fix that bug for a week' to 'push this update to this user' to some absurd 'hey can you add this remote desktop client to your code, the password has to be 1234'.
By no means is it a light thing to do but I do believe there is a range of actions that would constitute a 'back door' to me.
Granted I'm all for more congressional oversight and I'd like to see MUCH more aggressive congressional action.
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
It has always been true that any computer connected to the internet could be accessed by an unauthorized party, even before the leaks. Disconnect from the internet and nobody is getting in, including the NSA.
> Disconnect from the internet and nobody is getting in, including the NSA. Oh boy. That's some serious delusion in 2020. Wireless cards and higher end network interface cards are independent computers. Your processor has another processor (Intel ME and others) in it. Baseband Management Controllers are also independent computers on their own right. With closed firmware and wireless capabilities, you can never know w…
The NSA apparently perfectly aligned 4 zeros days in Siemens and Microsoft products to spread the malware from USB into the Iranian LAN (shared printers, industrial PICs etc).
The fact that they could choose and align 4 zero days indicates that the NSA probably has a large list of zeros days.
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quote from Wyden in the article >Secret encryption back doors are a threat to national security and the safety of our families – it’s only a matter of time before foreign hackers or criminals exploit them in ways that undermine American national security
In other words: NSA paved the way for foreign hackers and criminals...
Software / hardware industry is PLENTY good at paving the way all on its own.
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#37The director of the NSA lied while under oath to congress, and nothing happened. As far as I'm concerned, what 3 letter agencies say publically is irrelevant.
However many people somehow simultaneously hold the belief that these agencies should continue to exist, are deserving of our taxpayer dollars, and are generally Good Guys who happen to do bad things sometimes. Perhaps it's just too exhausting to consider the extent of corruption in the USA.
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Counterpoint: I actually do work at a chip company and have never heard of any of this internally. Even from the people working on secure biometrics. Neither of these anecdotes proves anything.
The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. If a chip company was placing back doors into their products, I doubt it would be something they would talk about around the water cooler. However, if a back door was implemented on this level, if some one broke rule #1 and rule #2 of fight club, then I don't see how it would be able to be kept quite after that.
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#39I would expect they do, and I'm not entirely against it depending on the circumstances around it and so forth. To me a 'back door' could range from 'don't fix that bug for a week' to 'push this update to this user' to some absurd 'hey can you add this remote desktop client to your code, the password has to be 1234'. By no means is it a light thing to do but I do believe there is a range of actions that would constitu…
The problem with your second example, targeting a specific user, is that they're doing this without any kind of warrant.
Re: Spy agency ducks questions about 'back doors' in tech products
#40I would expect they do, and I'm not entirely against it depending on the circumstances around it and so forth. To me a 'back door' could range from 'don't fix that bug for a week' to 'push this update to this user' to some absurd 'hey can you add this remote desktop client to your code, the password has to be 1234'. By no means is it a light thing to do but I do believe there is a range of actions that would constitu…
The problem with your first and third examples is that it leaves it open and vulnerable to anyone other than the NSA. Like if a "backdoor" is left open for encryption, as soon as it's discovered then that door is open to anyone. The problem with your second example, targeting a specific user, is that they're doing this without any kind of warrant.