4 ms·

I think it can go the other way in a couple of cases though: A) WD (by a government) or its staff (by WD management) were ordered to put in the backdoor, but d

I think it can go the other way in a couple of cases though: A) WD (by a government) or its staff (by WD management) were ordered to put in the backdoor, but didn't agree with doing so, thus made it obvious in the hopes that it would be found. B) A backdoor that is found but written off as sloppy development is less damaging than a bug that if found and analysed looks deliberate (because bad development practices are hardly new for hardware manufacturers). _Potentially_ makes exploiting it less risky as well - if it's an obvious or known thing, the attacker could be anyone. If it's a subtle, undisclosed bug (that hasn't been used against many targets), that suggests, to some extent, the involvement of whomever could arrange for the bug to be placed there. It probably isn't deliberate, but that possibility certainly isn't excluded either, so I'd be cautious about treating this as a hard and fast rule.

EgoIncarnate 9y ago
Which is why I started with "Generally" :-)
- EgoIncarnate 9y ago
  Wow. Don't think I've had a comment with negative points on HN before. Curious as to why the downvotes. I was attempting to point out that I did not consider what I said in the original comment to be a hard and fast rule. Is the objection that the way I said it was too disrespectful (no offense was intended, hence the :-) )? Disagreeing with the original statement (it might have downvotes too, but maybe more upvotes are hiding that)? Too obvious? Something else?
  - rictic 9y ago
    It didn't add anything to the conversation.
  - quartus 9y ago
    If you feel compelled to put a smiley face after a sentence to make it more agreeable, it's a sign that you were uncomfortable with the tone of the sentence. Adding a smiley just comes across as passive aggressive or condescending. Just rewrite the original sentence so that you're comfortable with the tone, and omit the smiley.
    - EgoIncarnate 9y ago
      Thank you very much. Sometimes things like this are not obvious to me and this will help me communicate better in the future.

EgoIncarnate 9y ago

Which is why I started with "Generally" :-)

EgoIncarnate 9y ago
Wow. Don't think I've had a comment with negative points on HN before. Curious as to why the downvotes. I was attempting to point out that I did not consider what I said in the original comment to be a hard and fast rule. Is the objection that the way I said it was too disrespectful (no offense was intended, hence the :-) )? Disagreeing with the original statement (it might have downvotes too, but maybe more upvotes are hiding that)? Too obvious? Something else?
- rictic 9y ago
  It didn't add anything to the conversation.
- quartus 9y ago
  If you feel compelled to put a smiley face after a sentence to make it more agreeable, it's a sign that you were uncomfortable with the tone of the sentence. Adding a smiley just comes across as passive aggressive or condescending. Just rewrite the original sentence so that you're comfortable with the tone, and omit the smiley.
  - EgoIncarnate 9y ago
    Thank you very much. Sometimes things like this are not obvious to me and this will help me communicate better in the future.