5 ms·
>Nobody has found built-in backdoors for UK spies I think GCHQ's intercept capabilities are pretty well documented in the ANT catalog: https://en.wikipedia.or
by mmjaa 8y ago
>Nobody has found built-in backdoors for UK spies
I think GCHQ's intercept capabilities are pretty well documented in the ANT catalog:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog
I know for a fact that GCHQ are customers of JUNIORMINT.
(Check for fingerprints and other sloppy cleaning on the wrappers of those "brand new laptops", folks.. the ones that spent a couple of days in limbo at a 'shipping hub' somewhere around Heathrow/Stanstead, etc.)
This is the issue with the duplicity inherent in the 5-eyes agreement - what we think only 'the other guys' can do, our guys can do when they work with the 'other guys'.
- rl3 8y ago>(Check for fingerprints and other sloppy cleaning on the wrappers of those "brand new laptops", folks ... Or you know, they just use gloves because they work for a signals intelligence agency installing implants for a living.
- ben_w 8y agoThey might, they might not. They’re also fallible humans who silo their knowledge from each other as protection against other state agencies, and the downside of sioling your internal information is more dumb-looking mistakes and resistance to fixing them. Heck, that resistance is why Snowden did his thing in the first place.
- mmjaa 8y agoI found fingerprints and dust on my recent Apple MacBook Pro purchase, underneath the peel-off wrapper. It was not a refurb, was bought originally from Apple and it did indeed have a 2-day wait in a 'shipping hub'. I'm fairly sure this machine has an implant - or at least, someone really goofed at Apples' manufacturing.
- kaybe 8y agoSo did you do anything about it?
- sigstoat 8y agoif you and your employer are concerned about this, why are you mail ordering laptops instead of buying them in cash at the store?
- Ntrails 8y agoAfter purchase is signed off, go to a random store from 3 ascribed by independent a via dice roll observed by parties a b and c, travel there, where independent b will choose from 3 equivalent items at random and purchase them for the original requester.
- hnbroseph 8y agoand whence cometh the dice, good sir?
- xfitm3 8y agoThis only works if you need a device that’s in stock. Any custom spec’d machine requires it to be built and shipped. I’ve never tried, but I don’t think that can be done anonymously.
- mmjaa 8y agoIts the only way to get the keyboard configuration we want.
- sigstoat 8y agoi find it difficult to take "we're worried about state-level actors compromising our hardware, but we're unwilling to use a standard keyboard layout to avoid it" very seriously.
- mmjaa 8y agoIts easy, all you have to think is "what happened first - did they order the keyboard and then discover evidence it might have been tampered with, or did they have the concern, overlook it because 'need a good keyboard, who cares about big brother', and then place the order regardless?" D'uh .. Its the first option. We didn't think about it much, ordered the keyboard config we wanted, thought about the interception/implant issue, paid close attention to the wrapping upon receipt of the laptop, decided that we'd probably been intercepted along the way somewhere ..
- foldr 8y ago>(Check for fingerprints and other sloppy cleaning on the wrappers of those "brand new laptops", folks.. the ones that spent a couple of days in limbo at a 'shipping hub' somewhere around Heathrow/Stanstead, etc.) If the intelligence agencies are really spending time and resources on such ludicrously inefficient and ineffective techniques as installing backdoors on random laptops in warehouses, you should be glad!
- mmjaa 8y agoI don't think its so random. I work for people they would definitely be interested in.
- TallGuyShort 8y agoWhy should I be glad? I'm paying for it. If they're not spending on effective efforts against legitimate threats, that money is, at best, wasted and I'm still exposed to those threats. At worst, maybe my own money will one day be used against me in prosecuting a victimless crime. The likely middle ground is my own money is being wasted to violate my own privacy for no good reason. This isn't sounding very good to me.
- foldr 8y agoThe intelligence agencies obviously aren't doing this. It was a tongue-in-cheek comment.