Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

rmcybernetics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 342 posts

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#101

Post by echelon »

titzer wrote: post #37

I am more than a little concerned that since the miniaturization and commoditization of spy hardware (miniature microphones, cameras, and wireless communication), that run-of-the-mill consumer electronics are being bugged by default. Given the cost is pennies or just a couple dollars, from an espionage perspective, it'd be worth it to spend a few hundred million or even billion putting bugs into literally everything…

We would find those in tear downs.

This caused quite the stir about a month ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29555093

TikTok, Facebook (for the FBI/CIA), and other platforms are probably lower hanging fruit. People just accept the surveillance, and there's not much reverse engineering one can do to determine what's being done with your data.

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#102

Post by geysersam »

iamstupidsimple wrote: post #100
geysersam wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot possibly blame the Chinese government or the people for the Corona virus. That's just insane. Granted, the official response wasn't good. But a virus pandemic was ever only a question of time. It's unlikely it could have been prevented wherever it had started.

Is there a credible reason why SARS and COVID both came from the same country? The right official response would've been to not start a cover up (and the rest of the world could've hopefully prepared better). Even the WHO was carrying water for China in Feb 2020.

Yes, the reason is that a fifth of the world population lives there.

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#103

Post by cinntaile »

geysersam wrote: post #97
paul7986 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

You cannot possibly blame the Chinese government or the people for the Corona virus. That's just insane. Granted, the official response wasn't good. But a virus pandemic was ever only a question of time. It's unlikely it could have been prevented wherever it had started.

I don't think the dust has settled on whether this was manmade or not?

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#104

Post by bruce343434 »

titzer wrote: post #37

I am more than a little concerned that since the miniaturization and commoditization of spy hardware (miniature microphones, cameras, and wireless communication), that run-of-the-mill consumer electronics are being bugged by default. Given the cost is pennies or just a couple dollars, from an espionage perspective, it'd be worth it to spend a few hundred million or even billion putting bugs into literally everything…

What would the chips connect to in order to phone home? My protected home wifi? A random telecom carrier for which it will have to have, by chance, a valid prepaid sim card?

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#105

Post by reincarnate0x14 »

iamstupidsimple wrote: post #100
geysersam wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot possibly blame the Chinese government or the people for the Corona virus. That's just insane. Granted, the official response wasn't good. But a virus pandemic was ever only a question of time. It's unlikely it could have been prevented wherever it had started.

Is there a credible reason why SARS and COVID both came from the same country? The right official response would've been to not start a cover up (and the rest of the world could've hopefully prepared better). Even the WHO was carrying water for China in Feb 2020.

Because that coronavirus in endemic to bat populations in that part of China. Covid19, for layman's purposes, is basically slightly mutated SARS, and is called SARS-CoV-2. That's why the virology lab is in Wuhan.

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#106

Post by paul7986 »

geysersam wrote: post #97
paul7986 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

You cannot possibly blame the Chinese government or the people for the Corona virus. That's just insane. Granted, the official response wasn't good. But a virus pandemic was ever only a question of time. It's unlikely it could have been prevented wherever it had started.

[flagged]

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#107

Post by Dah00n »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #86
starfallg wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm not saying that I don't buy anything made in China, almost everything is made in China, but everyone should avoid Chinese crapware. If you spend just a small bit of effort, you can look for items not made in China. They are usually higher quality. Japanese companies (and increasingly large American ones) are moving / have moved their production elsewhere due to an increasingly hostile business environment in Chi…

Why are you being downvoted? Avoiding chinese products is a good thing. Thanks for the tips.

No post body was provided.

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#108

Post by Dah00n »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #47
capableweb wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surely buyers can't possibly afford sending everything back. What country you live in with so poor online protections you can't return things within the return window without incurring extra costs for doing so? Sounds broken.

> What country you live in with so poor online protections you can't return things within the return window without incurring extra costs for doing so? Sounds broken. The sellers are in China and the products are ordered internationally. The sellers don’t care about your local return laws.

Then the fix is simple. Buy it locally or from a company from there. They might not care but then the local seller (amazon for example) is on the hook (in any country with a proper customer protection at least).

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#109

Post by paul7986 »

geysersam wrote: post #102
iamstupidsimple wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a credible reason why SARS and COVID both came from the same country? The right official response would've been to not start a cover up (and the rest of the world could've hopefully prepared better). Even the WHO was carrying water for China in Feb 2020.

Yes, the reason is that a fifth of the world population lives there.

No post body was provided.

Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled

#110

Post by JediPig »

20 years ago, china hide 2nd network card that was in listener mode, transmitting documents at random times, mostly peek. This was at a research company. How it was discovered. We put a card on listening/prem mode and mirror everything for that subnet the printer was on. I thought I screwed it up with the double mirror/traffic.

when investigating why the issue, we found nothing wrong with the config, only when we plugged it to another network, we discovered it was something on the network. We narrow it down quickly to the printer. We told head of security (we were hired for an audit ) and it soon became known it was stealing trade secrets and sending them overseas.

that was 20 years ago, and till this day, I remember anytime someone says china doesn't steal technology... I remember this printer. this was done at the state level and was caught.

Post reply on HN