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I used to work at Nortel Networks along with 130,000 other people. Nortel went bankrupt and now everyone who used to work there is fighting for their pensions.

I used to work at Nortel Networks along with 130,000 other people. Nortel went bankrupt and now everyone who used to work there is fighting for their pensions. Apparently a major contributor to their downfall was all of the IP being stolen and sensitive information about deals going down otherwise exfiltrated by Huawei[1] People need to get serious about protecting the privacy of their communications and data. Nobody cares until it is too late. Seems like this kind of event might be the incentive people need to make the extra effort to use products that encrypt their data in rest and in motion. 1: https://www.afr.com/technology/web/security/how-chinese-hack.. https://www.afr.com/technology/web/security/how-chinese-hack.... I made this comment earlier on a story about China POPs in Canada and USA nefariously re-routing traffic through China Telecom networks but that story was marked as a dupe by the time I made my comment so no discussion ensued.

kodablah 8y ago
> Apparently a major contributor to their downfall was all of the IP being stolen If a company is heavily dependent upon existing IP then having it all stolen will be a major contributor to their downfall. But so is that dependence. Hard to make suggestions without appearing to victim blame, but companies need to be able to survive even without secrets.
- exnorrtel 8y ago
  I didn't want to pin the downfall of Nortel completely on the IP being stolen and being outmanoeuvred in deals. During the dot-com bust they also lost a bunch of money selling carriers equipment on credit and that is when the tough times and inability of the executives to right the ship began.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  Why? If you follow that standard, you are basically saying that no R&D should ever be done, because you may just get it stolen and lose any kind of benefit you would derive from doing the R&D in the first place.
  - kodablah 8y ago
    That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying don't build an overly large dependence on past R&D where resting on those laurels threatens the whole company if theft occurs.
    - DataWorker 8y ago
      Couldn’t the new R&D be stolen as well? It sounds like you don’t like Coca Cola classic.
- cwkoss 8y ago
  A company who "goes out of business because their IP was stolen" was already going out of business before it was stolen.

kodablah 8y ago

> Apparently a major contributor to their downfall was all of the IP being stolen If a company is heavily dependent upon existing IP then having it all stolen will be a major contributor to their downfall. But so is that dependence. Hard to make suggestions without appearing to victim blame, but companies need to be able to survive even without secrets.

exnorrtel 8y ago
I didn't want to pin the downfall of Nortel completely on the IP being stolen and being outmanoeuvred in deals. During the dot-com bust they also lost a bunch of money selling carriers equipment on credit and that is when the tough times and inability of the executives to right the ship began.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
oh_sigh 8y ago
Why? If you follow that standard, you are basically saying that no R&D should ever be done, because you may just get it stolen and lose any kind of benefit you would derive from doing the R&D in the first place.
- kodablah 8y ago
  That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying don't build an overly large dependence on past R&D where resting on those laurels threatens the whole company if theft occurs.
  - DataWorker 8y ago
    Couldn’t the new R&D be stolen as well? It sounds like you don’t like Coca Cola classic.
cwkoss 8y ago
A company who "goes out of business because their IP was stolen" was already going out of business before it was stolen.