5 ms·

American Universities Infected by Foreign Spies Detected by FBI

35 points by jnazario 14y ago

127001brewer 14y ago
"As schools become more global in their locations ... their culture of openness and international collaboration makes them increasingly vulnerable to theft of research conducted for the government and industry." Excuse me, but isn't this obvious? "Foreign countries “can never become competitive by stealing,” [University of Maryland President Wallace Loh] said. ..." Maybe I'm too naive, but I would think virtually any foreign company can become very competitive by stealing. "... In another, an Asian graduate student arranged for researchers back home to visit an American university lab and take unauthorized photos of equipment so they could reconstruct it, the report said." ...which lead to Kim Jong Un and Dennis Rodman making very delicious mini-cupcakes from their recontructed Easy-Bake Oven (TM). Seriously? Where is Bruce Schneier to talk about "Security Theater"? "A foreign scientist’s military background or purpose isn’t always apparent. ..." I had to stop reading the article at this point...
- rayiner 14y ago
  > Maybe I'm too naive, but I would think virtually any foreign company can become very competitive by stealing. It worked for China, India, and Korea.
  - Niten 14y ago
    And the United States. EDIT: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-01/piracy-and-fraud-propelled-the-u-s-industrial-revolution.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-01/piracy-and-fraud-pr...
    - rayiner 14y ago
      What're you referring to? The US is the most technologically productive country in the history of the world. Your article overstates the case: even early on the US innovated in many areas (though textiles was not one of those areas): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_and_industrial_history_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_and_industrial_hi...
      - deleted 14y ago
        [deleted]
      - Niten 14y ago
        Err... innovations in Bieber face swaps? Sorry, you lost me EDIT: OK different link now... sure there is a Wikipedia article titled "Technological and industrial history of the United States". But that doesn't change the fact that, yes, the country's early technological growth was based heavily on the same sort of "piracy" that people love to hate modern Asia for. Obviously a ton of great stuff has been created in the U.S. since then. All I'm saying is that if we're going to list countries for whom intellectual property theft has proven profitable, the U.S. belongs on that list just as sure as anyone else.
        rayiner 14y ago
        My objection is to the use of the word "heavily." Your article uses the example of stealing mill technology. The Wikipedia article gives an accounting of other areas of technology that were home built, even in the early days of the republic. The US was technologically self-sufficient along many dimensions, from agriculture to transportation. It had certain gaps in manufacturing technology because of the nature of British mercantilism (raw materials were exported to Britain and reimported as finished goods into America, which suppressed the development of native manufacturing). In any case, stealing technology has been a much more fundamental part of the recent prosperity of China and India. Their societies are almost wholly dependent on Western technology. In comparison, the U.S. was always a prosperous country, even during colonial times.
        btilly 14y ago
        The USA was prosperous during colonial times because it imported talent directly from England. Yes, the USA has a long history of innovation (for instance Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, and the Franklin Stove. But if you read up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution you'll find that major technological progress began in England, and the USA was mostly an innovative footnote until surprisingly late. The USA did much more important than exporting of major technology for decades.
- dullcrisp 14y ago
  Could you please rephrase your point using less sarcasm? I don't really understand what this comment is saying. I don't know how to make this request without sounding sarcastic myself, but I'm being sincere.
zachdonovan 14y ago
I had the uncanny feeling I'd read this before... And then I realized I had! This article is from April 8th, 2012.
jostmey 14y ago
Great. Now some bonehead in D.C. will probably propose installing body scanners on academic campuses.
salimmadjd 14y ago
Racist BS! The article starts by a paragraph impying Iranian students are spies,etc. However, the number of Iranian students coming to US has been minimized thanks to ongoing Israeli lobby to very few per year. Then it moves to Chinese students and on and on...this crap has no place oh HN
- chickopozo 14y ago
  /facepalm Whilst the article is written like a movie plot you on the other hand are looking for things that are not there mate.
Camillo 14y ago
The front desk at my university's library was lending pen drives to people who needed to get scans off the copy machines (which were not connected to the network, for some reason). Abandoned pen drives were put into a drawer and recycled in this way. The pen drive I was given was unusually large and had the name of a Chinese university on it. When I plugged it into my MacBook, I was asked to choose a layout for the new keyboard. It turns out that there are pen drives that actually contain two USB devices, a mass storage drive and a keyboard, and the keyboard part can be programmed to type rogue commands at night (I guess Windows doesn't alert you that loudly when a keyboard is connected, so it's more likely to go unnoticed). I tried to get someone to help investigate this possible rogue device, but nobody cared. I wonder if it was an espionage tool.
- luke-stanley 14y ago
  If this is true, take one or two of them. This would be great fun to investigate further. Consider taking photos of the inside if you can disassemble it without breaking it. Find a few computer science student, get them in a room and ask them to evaluate the device. If this fails, find a highly ranked, trusted user on hacker news, and send it to them if they are willing.
  - Camillo 14y ago
    I don't know if I should believe you, but anyway, this happened several months ago. I tried getting a computer security professor involved, but nothing came of it. I told the library to quarantine the drive when I handed it back, but who knows what they did.
- mdxn 14y ago
  I know a couple of CS security students at my university (myself included) that would LOVE to look into those if what you say is true.
  - Camillo 14y ago
    Even if I assumed you could be trusted, the incident happened several months ago and I no longer have the pendrive.

35 points by jnazario 14y ago

"As schools become more global in their locations ... their culture of openness and international collaboration makes them increasingly vulnerable to theft of research conducted for the government and industry." Excuse me, but isn't this obvious? "Foreign countries “can never become competitive by stealing,” [University of Maryland President Wallace Loh] said. ..." Maybe I'm too naive, but I would think virtually any foreign company can become very competitive by stealing. "... In another, an Asian graduate student arranged for researchers back home to visit an American university lab and take unauthorized photos of equipment so they could reconstruct it, the report said." ...which lead to Kim Jong Un and Dennis Rodman making very delicious mini-cupcakes from their recontructed Easy-Bake Oven (TM). Seriously? Where is Bruce Schneier to talk about "Security Theater"? "A foreign scientist’s military background or purpose isn’t always apparent. ..." I had to stop reading the article at this point...

rayiner 14y ago
> Maybe I'm too naive, but I would think virtually any foreign company can become very competitive by stealing. It worked for China, India, and Korea.
- Niten 14y ago
  And the United States. EDIT: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-01/piracy-and-fraud-propelled-the-u-s-industrial-revolution.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-01/piracy-and-fraud-pr...
  - rayiner 14y ago
    What're you referring to? The US is the most technologically productive country in the history of the world. Your article overstates the case: even early on the US innovated in many areas (though textiles was not one of those areas): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_and_industrial_history_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_and_industrial_hi...
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - Niten 14y ago
      Err... innovations in Bieber face swaps? Sorry, you lost me EDIT: OK different link now... sure there is a Wikipedia article titled "Technological and industrial history of the United States". But that doesn't change the fact that, yes, the country's early technological growth was based heavily on the same sort of "piracy" that people love to hate modern Asia for. Obviously a ton of great stuff has been created in the U.S. since then. All I'm saying is that if we're going to list countries for whom intellectual property theft has proven profitable, the U.S. belongs on that list just as sure as anyone else.
      - rayiner 14y ago
        My objection is to the use of the word "heavily." Your article uses the example of stealing mill technology. The Wikipedia article gives an accounting of other areas of technology that were home built, even in the early days of the republic. The US was technologically self-sufficient along many dimensions, from agriculture to transportation. It had certain gaps in manufacturing technology because of the nature of British mercantilism (raw materials were exported to Britain and reimported as finished goods into America, which suppressed the development of native manufacturing). In any case, stealing technology has been a much more fundamental part of the recent prosperity of China and India. Their societies are almost wholly dependent on Western technology. In comparison, the U.S. was always a prosperous country, even during colonial times.
        btilly 14y ago
        The USA was prosperous during colonial times because it imported talent directly from England. Yes, the USA has a long history of innovation (for instance Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, and the Franklin Stove. But if you read up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution you'll find that major technological progress began in England, and the USA was mostly an innovative footnote until surprisingly late. The USA did much more important than exporting of major technology for decades.
dullcrisp 14y ago
Could you please rephrase your point using less sarcasm? I don't really understand what this comment is saying. I don't know how to make this request without sounding sarcastic myself, but I'm being sincere.

zachdonovan 14y ago

I had the uncanny feeling I'd read this before... And then I realized I had! This article is from April 8th, 2012.

jostmey 14y ago

Great. Now some bonehead in D.C. will probably propose installing body scanners on academic campuses.

salimmadjd 14y ago

Racist BS! The article starts by a paragraph impying Iranian students are spies,etc. However, the number of Iranian students coming to US has been minimized thanks to ongoing Israeli lobby to very few per year. Then it moves to Chinese students and on and on...this crap has no place oh HN

chickopozo 14y ago
/facepalm Whilst the article is written like a movie plot you on the other hand are looking for things that are not there mate.

Camillo 14y ago

The front desk at my university's library was lending pen drives to people who needed to get scans off the copy machines (which were not connected to the network, for some reason). Abandoned pen drives were put into a drawer and recycled in this way. The pen drive I was given was unusually large and had the name of a Chinese university on it. When I plugged it into my MacBook, I was asked to choose a layout for the new keyboard. It turns out that there are pen drives that actually contain two USB devices, a mass storage drive and a keyboard, and the keyboard part can be programmed to type rogue commands at night (I guess Windows doesn't alert you that loudly when a keyboard is connected, so it's more likely to go unnoticed). I tried to get someone to help investigate this possible rogue device, but nobody cared. I wonder if it was an espionage tool.

luke-stanley 14y ago
If this is true, take one or two of them. This would be great fun to investigate further. Consider taking photos of the inside if you can disassemble it without breaking it. Find a few computer science student, get them in a room and ask them to evaluate the device. If this fails, find a highly ranked, trusted user on hacker news, and send it to them if they are willing.
- Camillo 14y ago
  I don't know if I should believe you, but anyway, this happened several months ago. I tried getting a computer security professor involved, but nothing came of it. I told the library to quarantine the drive when I handed it back, but who knows what they did.
mdxn 14y ago
I know a couple of CS security students at my university (myself included) that would LOVE to look into those if what you say is true.
- Camillo 14y ago
  Even if I assumed you could be trusted, the incident happened several months ago and I no longer have the pendrive.