4 ms·

This is the same bullshit that was thrown around when IBM sold off their PCs to Lenovo. A British spy agency coming out with information like this but not in p

by tnuc 13y ago

This is the same bullshit that was thrown around when IBM sold off their PCs to Lenovo. A British spy agency coming out with information like this but not in public? Sounds like bullshit to me. Britain would be well advised to steer clear of US branded computers as the NSA might have access.

samstave 13y ago
>...as the NSA might have access Might? Anyone recall how the USG was requiring backdoors into all routers/switches? I was told about this in 1997 from a Cisco employee who told me they were required to provide a method for the USG to be able to log into all devices they make.
- mrweasel 13y ago
  USG? I've seen that show up quite often the last couple of days, but never explained. Google says it's USG Corporation or University System of Georgia.
  - pja 13y ago
    United States Government in this context I think.
  - wnoise 13y ago
    United States Government.
- schoen 13y ago
  It's possible that they were talking about CALEA, which has some wiretap capability mandates on hardware (and associated technical standards). If I had the choice between communicating over CALEA-compliant or non-CALEA-compliant infrastructure, I would far prefer the latter, but these particular backdoors aren't required to operate in an automatic, unattended, or surreptitious way (though some implementations might well have bugs that allow them to do so).
- superuser2 13y ago
  This is documented. Routers are required to have the ability to intercept traffic in response to a warrant, but the router's administrator must manually create an intercept and grant the government access to data. There is no "backdoor." http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios-xml/ios/sec_usr_cfg/configuration/xe-3s/sec-lawful-intercept.html http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios-xml/ios/sec_usr_cfg/conf...
sounds 13y ago
For US corporations and small businesses, a Lenovo laptop is definitely one of the first places to look for good linux compatibility. Lenovo laptops are also among the only ones that are supported by coreboot. You can't be sure you've found all the backdoors but by running coreboot+linux you can eliminate many of them. Perhaps that's the reason the US Government is spreading FUD about Lenovo.

by tnuc 13y ago

samstave 13y ago

>...as the NSA might have access Might? Anyone recall how the USG was requiring backdoors into all routers/switches? I was told about this in 1997 from a Cisco employee who told me they were required to provide a method for the USG to be able to log into all devices they make.

mrweasel 13y ago
USG? I've seen that show up quite often the last couple of days, but never explained. Google says it's USG Corporation or University System of Georgia.
- pja 13y ago
  United States Government in this context I think.
- wnoise 13y ago
  United States Government.
schoen 13y ago
It's possible that they were talking about CALEA, which has some wiretap capability mandates on hardware (and associated technical standards). If I had the choice between communicating over CALEA-compliant or non-CALEA-compliant infrastructure, I would far prefer the latter, but these particular backdoors aren't required to operate in an automatic, unattended, or surreptitious way (though some implementations might well have bugs that allow them to do so).
superuser2 13y ago
This is documented. Routers are required to have the ability to intercept traffic in response to a warrant, but the router's administrator must manually create an intercept and grant the government access to data. There is no "backdoor." http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios-xml/ios/sec_usr_cfg/configuration/xe-3s/sec-lawful-intercept.html http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios-xml/ios/sec_usr_cfg/conf...

sounds 13y ago

For US corporations and small businesses, a Lenovo laptop is definitely one of the first places to look for good linux compatibility. Lenovo laptops are also among the only ones that are supported by coreboot. You can't be sure you've found all the backdoors but by running coreboot+linux you can eliminate many of them. Perhaps that's the reason the US Government is spreading FUD about Lenovo.