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So at some point paranoia becomes paralyzing. I know I at least am unable to build a laptop or tablet from scratch. I need someone else to do it for me but if I
by zaphar 10y ago
So at some point paranoia becomes paralyzing. I know I at least am unable to build a laptop or tablet from scratch. I need someone else to do it for me but if I can't trust that person because their scale is too small and I can't trust the other guys because their scale is too big. Then who exactly can I trust?
I suppose we could all just abandon computing entirely. But I kind of like the internet and all that.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoIt isn't paranoia when NSA was already proven to do stuff like this and the target market consists disproportionately out of people who might be interesting to surveil. This product feels like a (most likely unintentional) honeypot.
- jlarocco 10y agoActually, it would be hilariously ironic if the whole company was an NSA honeypot.
- zaphar 10y agoSo here's the thing: Any company that solves this problem is by definition a (most likely unintentional) honeypot. Which is about as unhelpful as you can get. The question is what can these companies do to mitigate that risk for their clients. Expecting someone who needs/wants this sort of security in a laptop to homebrew it is unrealistic. So by your logic everyone should just despair and be completely paralyzed by their inability to protect themselves. Surely there is a better way?
- wmf 10y agoAny company that solves this problem is by definition a (most likely unintentional) honeypot. Unless that company has >100M users and turns security on by default.
- nickpsecurity 10y agoThat company is more likely to be a honeypot if it's a profit-motivated, US corporation who can insert a deniable software flaw. There were many such companies in the Snowden leaks. Im not worried about Purism outside same failures everyone else has. More likely to screw us by accident than anything.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoI'm not worried about Purism doing something malicious to their customers; if anything, per the original comment in this thread I'd expect NSA to simply intercept all the shipments en-route and backdoor them, just like they did with other laptops in the past.
- nickpsecurity 10y agoIt was apparent that they are very selective about stuff like that. You have to be a target of significant value. They could use this attack against specific buyers but I doubt they'll compromise all of them. Risk vs reward.