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Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

scandasia.com

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Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#111

Post by petre »

t-3 wrote: post #26

So... did the Chinese company put Romanian SIMs in the busses? Or was it an importer that installed those? Are there fleet management features enabled by that connectivity or are they actually secret? Also, why would they purchase busses that they thought couldn't be remotely monitored or controlled?! That seems like a very valuable feature for public transport.

If the Chinese wanted to hide anything they'd put SIM chips without markings or eSIMs inside, as opposed to marked SIM cards. What they did is probably obtain a good quote on Romanian SIM subscriptions that work across the EEA. This is clearly FUD, but yes, they should have been more careful as to equip half of their fleet with Chinese buses that call home.

Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#112

Post by mort96 »

MisterTea wrote: post #55

Whats sad is Norway sits right next to the country which manufactures Scania and Volvo Busses, but instead buys busses from thousands of km away. I suppose cost is all that maters these days, even for national infrastructure which must remain in control and secure.

Surprised to learn that Volvo manufactures buses in Sweden considering they're 78% owned by a Chinese conglomerate..

Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#113

Post by thinkingtoilet »

adrianN wrote: post #41
IAmBroom wrote: post #29

I work in rail safety. Two major non-Chinese train companies attempted to merge a few years ago, explicitly to build a company that could compete with China's national company, and provide safer alternatives to state-sponsored cyberhacking of Western rail. It fell down to an anti-monopoly decision by a single person in the EU ministry, who killed the proposal. Several attempts were made to streamline the merger, but…

The European champion would still be ten times smaller than the Chinese but would have factual monopoly in Europe. I don’t think blocking the merger was entirely unreasonable.

So now you have a state-owned Chinese monopoly controlling your transportation.

Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#114

Post by bell-cot »

fsflover wrote: post #103
bell-cot wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vs. conspiracy theorists are happy to imagine an evil genius black op behind every village idiot?

Snowden proved that conspiracy theorists were right.

Broken clocks are occasionally right. Yet intelligent people never seem to use them to tell time...

Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#115

Post by markus_zhang »

IAmBroom wrote: post #29

I work in rail safety. Two major non-Chinese train companies attempted to merge a few years ago, explicitly to build a company that could compete with China's national company, and provide safer alternatives to state-sponsored cyberhacking of Western rail. It fell down to an anti-monopoly decision by a single person in the EU ministry, who killed the proposal. Several attempts were made to streamline the merger, but…

Can you elaborate on the IP theft stuffs by winning contracts? Just curious how it is done.

Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#116

Post by theyinwhy »

hopelite wrote: post #88
t-3 wrote: post #26

So... did the Chinese company put Romanian SIMs in the busses? Or was it an importer that installed those? Are there fleet management features enabled by that connectivity or are they actually secret? Also, why would they purchase busses that they thought couldn't be remotely monitored or controlled?! That seems like a very valuable feature for public transport.

To me this smells of rather basic economic/political propaganda to scare people. The collective west is clearly getting orders from high above to apply pressure on China and it may just be that this is part of it, spreading an air of concern and fear to dissuade other people who pay attention to this kind of thing in municipalities to avoid Chinese manufacturers. It's rather basic social engineering that has the ham…

> The collective west is clearly getting orders from high above

God?

Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#117

Post by port11 »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #105
IAmBroom wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the details. > ...acknowledging mistakes made in the past " That's falling somewhat short of admitting she alone fucked that situation up. The US and Canada had already given permission for the merge to bypass antitrust laws.

Antitrust is important, so why not pass a law that prioritizes national or European companies for critical infrastructure, even if they're more expensive? Creating a monopoly to combat another monopoly is unlikely to end well in the future.

This seems like the most obvious solution, provided local offers aren't massively more expensive. I don't see why we wouldn't award contracts to EU companies that create jobs here, pay taxes here, and follow local regulations. We don't need a super company with a local monopoly, just to stop prioritising “as cheap as possible”.

Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#119

Post by kelnos »

IAmBroom wrote: post #29

I work in rail safety. Two major non-Chinese train companies attempted to merge a few years ago, explicitly to build a company that could compete with China's national company, and provide safer alternatives to state-sponsored cyberhacking of Western rail. It fell down to an anti-monopoly decision by a single person in the EU ministry, who killed the proposal. Several attempts were made to streamline the merger, but…

Is there really not enough room in the global market for two smaller companies to compete (and win) against CRCC?

I think this is especially not that big a deal considering the national security implications. I expect Norway would contract with a non-Chinese company for bus, rail, everything from now on due to that, regardless of whether or not they are smaller than the CRCC.

Re: Norway reviews cybersecurity after remote-access feature found in Chinese buses

#120

Post by kelnos »

graeme wrote: post #95
adrianN wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The European champion would still be ten times smaller than the Chinese but would have factual monopoly in Europe. I don’t think blocking the merger was entirely unreasonable.

The parent comment is describing a scenario where the Chinese company may get a factual monopoly in Europe because it can outcompete the two European companies due to economies of scale.

Wouldn't cases of possible corporate-enabled espionage, like the one being discussed be a big competitive advantage for the European companies, regardless of their pricing or scale?

And that competitive advantage could presumably give them more scale?

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