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

rmcybernetics.com

201–210 of 342 posts

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

#201

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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.

The Brother color laser printer I purchased 7-8 years ago was the best printer purchase I ever made. I barely print, and the toner doesn't dry up the way inkjet ink does. It just sits there, ready for the occasional print job. No BS software required.

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

#202

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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 can 100% blame the Chinese government. If they enforced Western safety standards, COVID almost certainly would never have happened.

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

#203
post #15

Given that Windows 7 _Ultimate_ was installed on what is essentially an OEM machine, it's very likely that it's a pirated copy with a "home brewed" license key. I think the most reasonable explanation is that either the OS was sourced already infected, or the crack tool they used was infected.

You know what? I don't care anymore. When this type of thing happens it's almost always China. Whether it's intentional malware or a lack of QA, how could one tell? They have such a reputation for both I don't know why we still let their electronics into our countries.

The malware described in the article is script kiddy stuff. Probably part of a ripped Win7.

Stuxnet, Pegasus, Vault 7 tech are far more dangerous with that capacity to cause real harm to actual people. Who developed these?

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

#204
post #27

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I have seen enough stories of supply-line sabotage to think that if you are going to build your infrastructure with Chinese hardware, air-gapping it is a necessity. Probably a good idea to air-gap your pick and place machine even if it is not Chinese.

It's really tough to air-gap these days. Are you really going to set up a perimeter where every phone, watch, and computer is dropped off before entry?

A lot of places do have something like that, and even if you didn't, you could just make sure no official equipment has any wireless capability, and ban connecting any outside electronics to any official equipment.

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

#205

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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?

The first DDG result, there are many.

https://www.infoworld.com/article/2608141/snowden--the-nsa-p...

I'm a Brazilian, the NSA has been caught breaking Microsoft products on our largest companies for industrial spying too.

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

#206
post #126

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Why was the printer connected to the public internet? A DMZ subnet would have prevented this vector of attack.

That doesn't feel like a reasonable response... How's anormal person supposed to know what DMZ subnet would means?

A normal person wouldn't, but there should be someone on a company's IT staff who does.

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

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I heard your type of argument about the US mass spying before Snowden, and surprise, we were not conspirationists after all. So call that educated magical speculation.

Well, but correct me if I'm wrong, the Snowden leak included nothing like this. Instead it included a lot of things that would be a lot easier to do if Google/Microsoft ect just gave them access. The very fact they had to do everything else is at least evidence that don't have direct access

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

#208
post #68

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> "efficient" MBA eloi outsourced everything to morlocks a long time ago. This is the biggest weakness of the West - and it all stems back to "share holder value". Companies, US ones, in particular, seem to have some absurd drive to pay endless dividends to shareholders, and drive 'value' via share price, by appearing to be profitable. In other words, get stuff from the cheapest provider. It didn't help that at the s…

and it all stems back to "share holder value". Which is just a business buzzphrase for "Greed." The West is being eaten alive by its own greed, and the Chinese are just watching us do it.

Chinese are just as greedy and corrupt, make no mistake.

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

#209

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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.

No post body was provided.

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

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Same. What I don't get is that on Amazon I've purchased 10's to 100's of thousands in product (was an early user, business account admin etc). Of all the reviews that SHOULD have credibility, someone who doesn't review a lot and buys a TON of product - you think would be slightly credible? Instead, for those (few) times I've posted a clearly negative review - gone for whatever reason. If you buy enough from Amazon, e…

> Product reviews that when you go back to understand how the piece of trash product got 5 stars you realize the reviews DO NOT EVEN RELATE TO THE PRODUCT you purchased. I mean, how does this even happen?

Several ways:

1. Repurposing product listings for something unrelated and keeping the old sales data and reviews

2. Merging product listings to aggregate unrelated sales data and reviews

3. Fake reviews that were unrelated to the product all along

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