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

rmcybernetics.com

181–190 of 342 posts

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

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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. > Why was the printer connected to the public internet? A DMZ subnet would have prevented this vector of attack. Aren't most network printers connected to office networks with public internet access? I sounds like this printer was making outgoing connections, and…

It doesn’t take long as a system administrator to become certain that printers are working against you. By and large they have user hostile hardware and software.

I’ve found this is true for everything but brother printers. I’ll never buy another brand again.

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

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anytime someone says china doesn't steal technology Does anyone believe that any non-CCP actors are disputing China’s ongoing, massive, organized trade secret theft?

I do. Highly effective propaganda has associated the facts around Chinese trade secret stealing with claims of racism and general xenophobia. As a result, now you have plenty of individuals all over the world whose moral compass pushes them to ignore the facts around trade secret stealing and even go dispute them in online conversations.

Explain further, please. Your response doesn't answer the question; I can't decide if it's deliberate obfuscation through scary words or an complete misunderstanding of what is being asked.

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

#183
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a bluetooth dongle on Amazon recently. didn't work out of the box, and the instruction booklet told me I had to download and install an unsigned device driver that I should download from a specific dropbox link. I tried to write a measured review on Amazon explaining the problem, but Amazon rejected the review. I threw it away and composed an angsty tweet [1], but I really should have returned it. [1] https:…

I very rarely write negative reviews, but every time I have was for something of this magnitude and not once has any ever been left up on any platform.

Reviews and the platforms they relate to should be separated from each other. And Yelp like strategies should be reason for major shunning.

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

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anytime someone says china doesn't steal technology Does anyone believe that any non-CCP actors are disputing China’s ongoing, massive, organized trade secret theft?

I do. Highly effective propaganda has associated the facts around Chinese trade secret stealing with claims of racism and general xenophobia. As a result, now you have plenty of individuals all over the world whose moral compass pushes them to ignore the facts around trade secret stealing and even go dispute them in online conversations.

To look beyond the rhetoric, we can see how smart rich people are acting in their self interest, (presumably the profit motive generally trumps identity politics) and there are very very numerous cases of avoiding ip leakage to PRC while being very comfortable with RoC, challenging the racial or xenophobic explanation in your post.

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

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anytime someone says china doesn't steal technology Does anyone believe that any non-CCP actors are disputing China’s ongoing, massive, organized trade secret theft?

I do. Highly effective propaganda has associated the facts around Chinese trade secret stealing with claims of racism and general xenophobia. As a result, now you have plenty of individuals all over the world whose moral compass pushes them to ignore the facts around trade secret stealing and even go dispute them in online conversations.

China is using the US’s Christian sensibilities (charity, forgiveness, etc) against them.

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

#186
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We should have never allowed them What does this mean?

Trade ban and sanctions in the early 2000s when it should have become clear their ambition and dirty tactics would put us on a collision course. Instead, we were blinded by the cheap cost and outsourced everything there. To a country that doesn't respect IP, or even basic human rights, and, on top of that, is now ready and able to export their world vision and order. Now it's a bit too late to stop them. NATO/West id…

Sorry, but we did this to ourselves. We moved our manufacturing capability to China in a hundred thousand tiny transactions and a couple of smaller ones for better quarterly earnings, the kind of stuff that Wall Street drools over.

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

#187

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 plu…

It's fair play to act like any gov is doing this. E.G: Microsoft being American (and them being part of PRISM), I just assume the OS has a backdoor for the US gov. Now with Windows 10 heavy telemetry, it's even easier. I work for a client doing chips for credit cards. Did you know they are now full blown computers that can run a light version of Java (Java Card) ? The company is building their own hardware and softwa…

It's pretty absurd to both sides something like this. Do you have evidence that the US government is doing this on computers it sells overseas, or is this just magical speculation?

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

#188
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…

This has already happened: smartphones and wifi. People financed it themselves by buying the things. (Wifi can see you: "The next big Wi-Fi standard is for sensing, not communication" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29901587 ) FWIW, I think whether we build a dystopia or utopia depends on whether or not we can make our rulers live under the same panopticon as the rest of us.

I don't disagree with the smartphones and WiFi, though the big 2 are highly motivated to at least secure the kernel and their own spyware. I am more thinking of these things targeting sensitive military installations or personnel.

> whether or not we can make our rulers live under the same panopticon as the rest of us.

Uh, nope. It's been "rules for thee and not for me" since the dawn of time.

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

#189
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trade ban and sanctions in the early 2000s when it should have become clear their ambition and dirty tactics would put us on a collision course. Instead, we were blinded by the cheap cost and outsourced everything there. To a country that doesn't respect IP, or even basic human rights, and, on top of that, is now ready and able to export their world vision and order. Now it's a bit too late to stop them. NATO/West id…

Early 2000’s? Here’s Joe Biden in 2011 fawning over King Xi and calling for a rising China. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CQaBdlu4rL4

Nixon, really

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

#190
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a bluetooth dongle on Amazon recently. didn't work out of the box, and the instruction booklet told me I had to download and install an unsigned device driver that I should download from a specific dropbox link. I tried to write a measured review on Amazon explaining the problem, but Amazon rejected the review. I threw it away and composed an angsty tweet [1], but I really should have returned it. [1] https:…

> I tried to write a measured review on Amazon explaining the problem, but Amazon rejected the review. This facet of the Big Tech censorship problem hardly ever gets any attention, but it's no less bad than YouTube and Twitter censoring their political opponents.

That's one of the things that's interesting about it being a private company and censoring things. The whole "free speech" vs "not free speech" issues. I certainly understand both sides of the aisle on that one but tend to lean against censorship.
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