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The argument of national security goes a long way.

by madez 9y ago

pjc50 9y ago
It certainly goes a long way towards redirecting money to favoured state companies and building protectionist barriers, yes. Whether it provides any actual security is another matter.
- klodolph 9y ago
  Are you aware of historical events like the 1982 Siberian pipeline explosion? It was allegedly caused by sabotaged software inserted by a Canadian company on behalf of the CIA. Modern chips are certainly dense enough and have enough layers that you can hide Trojans in them. Buying e.g. routers with Chinese ICs is a credible threat to the US government.
  - kogepathic 9y ago
    > Modern chips are certainly dense enough and have enough layers that you can hide Trojans in them. Buying e.g. routers with Chinese ICs is a credible threat to the US government. Why bother hiding the malware in hardware? Most electronics are made in China these days anyway, and only a very, very small fraction of users ever replace or investigate the firmware on their devices. Much easier and cheaper just to load a compromised firmware during manufacture and snoop that way.
    - klodolph 9y ago
      > …only a very, very small fraction of users ever replace or investigate the firmware on their devices… Remember that the users we are talking about here are US government agencies. Yes, they do investigate firmware. Yes, they do code reviews of your firmware source code. No, they won't let you just ship them a Chinese router with factory firmware on it.
  - pjc50 9y ago
    There's a strange little collaboration between BT, GCHQ and Huawei going on at "Adastral Park" (Martlesham Heath). It's all top secret, but the person who told me about it hinted that it wasn't about removing the surveillance backdoors but making sure that GCHQ had access to them.
  - oh_sigh 9y ago
    The explosion happened because Soviets stole control software and tried to run it on their system.
    - klodolph 9y ago
      The software was not stolen, it was purchased from a Canadian company. The explosion happened because of the CIA's sabotage efforts.
      - oh_sigh 9y ago
        This (and many other sources online) claim that the Soviets stole it from a Canadian company: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1455559/CIA-plot-led-to-huge-blast-in-Siberian-gas-pipeline.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1... Basically, the CIA learned that the Soviets were looking for this software, and got the Canadian company to plant a bug in it before the soviets could steal it.
lurr 9y ago
It works as well as "think of the children".

The argument of national security goes a long way.

by madez 9y ago

The argument of national security goes a long way.

It certainly goes a long way towards redirecting money to favoured state companies and building protectionist barriers, yes. Whether it provides any actual security is another matter.

klodolph 9y ago
Are you aware of historical events like the 1982 Siberian pipeline explosion? It was allegedly caused by sabotaged software inserted by a Canadian company on behalf of the CIA. Modern chips are certainly dense enough and have enough layers that you can hide Trojans in them. Buying e.g. routers with Chinese ICs is a credible threat to the US government.
- kogepathic 9y ago
  > Modern chips are certainly dense enough and have enough layers that you can hide Trojans in them. Buying e.g. routers with Chinese ICs is a credible threat to the US government. Why bother hiding the malware in hardware? Most electronics are made in China these days anyway, and only a very, very small fraction of users ever replace or investigate the firmware on their devices. Much easier and cheaper just to load a compromised firmware during manufacture and snoop that way.
  - klodolph 9y ago
    > …only a very, very small fraction of users ever replace or investigate the firmware on their devices… Remember that the users we are talking about here are US government agencies. Yes, they do investigate firmware. Yes, they do code reviews of your firmware source code. No, they won't let you just ship them a Chinese router with factory firmware on it.
- pjc50 9y ago
  There's a strange little collaboration between BT, GCHQ and Huawei going on at "Adastral Park" (Martlesham Heath). It's all top secret, but the person who told me about it hinted that it wasn't about removing the surveillance backdoors but making sure that GCHQ had access to them.
- oh_sigh 9y ago
  The explosion happened because Soviets stole control software and tried to run it on their system.
  - klodolph 9y ago
    The software was not stolen, it was purchased from a Canadian company. The explosion happened because of the CIA's sabotage efforts.
    - oh_sigh 9y ago
      This (and many other sources online) claim that the Soviets stole it from a Canadian company: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1455559/CIA-plot-led-to-huge-blast-in-Siberian-gas-pipeline.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1... Basically, the CIA learned that the Soviets were looking for this software, and got the Canadian company to plant a bug in it before the soviets could steal it.

lurr 9y ago

It works as well as "think of the children".