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Is anyone else concerned about buying a laptop from a Chinese manufacturer? I own a number of MacBooks and while they were all assembled in China I don't have

Is anyone else concerned about buying a laptop from a Chinese manufacturer? I own a number of MacBooks and while they were all assembled in China I don't have any concerns about the firmware. As more of these make it to US markets I'm sure if there is something it will come out but I'm currently taking a wait and see approach.

tpolzer 9y ago
Do you really think your MacBook firmware was not flashed in China?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
izacus 9y ago
What are you concerned about exactly?
- tmnvix 9y ago
  I imagine compromised security due to government meddling. Huawei's ownership structure is complicated and government influence is a concern. See Australia's decision to ban Huawei from it's National Broadband Network tender: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/government-maintains-nbn-ban-on-chinese-telco-huawei-after-secu/5051622 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/government-maintains-n... I have yet to hear of any proof that Huawei has actually compromised any of it's products or work.
  - cyphar 9y ago
    As an Australian, I'm not sure that I would recommend listening to any advice from us in relation to the NBN. Also from my experience working with them in upstream projects like runc, Huawei has a lot of very interesting technology in their offerings. Also note that basically every modern piece of technology is assembled and has its firmware flashed in China (or other various Asiatic nations with questionable governments).
    - vacri 9y ago
      I'll second this. The NBN is more politics than technology these days - and the politics have meant they've chosen yesterday's technology. I wouldn't use them to back an argument for technical sanity.
cyphar 9y ago
Your firmware was flashed in China. At the end of the day, everything comes from China and if you're worried about Huawei firmware you should also be worried about Macbook firmware. For reference, some time ago it was discovered that Lenovo firmware also had Chinese backdoors[1]. [1]: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/29/lenovo_accused_backdoors_intel_ban/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/29/lenovo_accused_backd...
cbhl 9y ago
My impression is that all electronics contain components from Shenzhen. Like, everyone I know who did a hardware startup moved to Shenzhen and spent at least six months there (if they didn't move part of the team there permanently). So you should (dis)trust all consumer-facing manufacturers equally, and find another way to verify that your system is running correctly. For example, here's how Chromium OS / Chrome OS does it: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/firmware-boot-and-recovery https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/... https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/verified-boot https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...
xupybd 9y ago
I'd be more worried about the cooling. I'm not sure that they'd have put the work into cooling this properly.

tpolzer 9y ago

Do you really think your MacBook firmware was not flashed in China?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

izacus 9y ago

What are you concerned about exactly?

tmnvix 9y ago
I imagine compromised security due to government meddling. Huawei's ownership structure is complicated and government influence is a concern. See Australia's decision to ban Huawei from it's National Broadband Network tender: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/government-maintains-nbn-ban-on-chinese-telco-huawei-after-secu/5051622 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/government-maintains-n... I have yet to hear of any proof that Huawei has actually compromised any of it's products or work.
- cyphar 9y ago
  As an Australian, I'm not sure that I would recommend listening to any advice from us in relation to the NBN. Also from my experience working with them in upstream projects like runc, Huawei has a lot of very interesting technology in their offerings. Also note that basically every modern piece of technology is assembled and has its firmware flashed in China (or other various Asiatic nations with questionable governments).
  - vacri 9y ago
    I'll second this. The NBN is more politics than technology these days - and the politics have meant they've chosen yesterday's technology. I wouldn't use them to back an argument for technical sanity.

cyphar 9y ago

Your firmware was flashed in China. At the end of the day, everything comes from China and if you're worried about Huawei firmware you should also be worried about Macbook firmware. For reference, some time ago it was discovered that Lenovo firmware also had Chinese backdoors[1]. [1]: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/29/lenovo_accused_backdoors_intel_ban/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/29/lenovo_accused_backd...

cbhl 9y ago

My impression is that all electronics contain components from Shenzhen. Like, everyone I know who did a hardware startup moved to Shenzhen and spent at least six months there (if they didn't move part of the team there permanently). So you should (dis)trust all consumer-facing manufacturers equally, and find another way to verify that your system is running correctly. For example, here's how Chromium OS / Chrome OS does it: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/firmware-boot-and-recovery https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/... https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/verified-boot https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...

xupybd 9y ago

I'd be more worried about the cooling. I'm not sure that they'd have put the work into cooling this properly.