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383 Comments
- YodaJones, on 11/18/2008, -29/+334Holy crap, it's true! My PC just said it will love me long time!
- inactive, on 11/18/2008, -21/+274Don't worry, if the micro-chip says, "Made In China" it will definitely malfunction or simply just fall apart.
- WordsnCollision, on 11/18/2008, -9/+212Didn't know they made microchips from lead, melamine and pesticide.
- inactive, on 11/19/2008, -3/+184I woke up i the middle of the night once and my toaster was quoting Mao. I stopped taking LSD anyway.
- borez, on 11/19/2008, -1/+142I knew my furby was hiding a dark secret, I could see it in his eyes.
- Conwaysb0718, on 11/19/2008, -2/+107yours must have been made in vietnam...
- Shogi, on 11/19/2008, -2/+99In case they do call home, I'm going to fill my computer with Asian porn so they'll be too distracted to steal my government secrets.
- duggtodeath, on 11/18/2008, -3/+96This is how Command & Conquer Generals started!
- acrodev, on 11/19/2008, -3/+67Sure, it's only crazy if THEY do it. Follow the yellow dots. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/10/effs-yellow-d ...
- Snarfy, on 11/19/2008, -4/+65
Why not? We did it to Russia:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,3914 ... - motters, on 11/19/2008, -1/+62This just helps to confirm what most of us in the software industry already know. Most spying isn't connected with terrorism or organized crime - it's mostly about industrial espionage, which is far more economically lucrative. Trade secrets, source code, circuit designs and internal corporate gossip are very valuable if you want to produce competitive products, or just cheaper knock-offs.
- bixby1, on 11/18/2008, -4/+62submitters note: After some digging I found out that the author, Robert Eringer, worked primarily for the FBI and only tangentially with the CIA. Of course, that doesn't discredit his opinions or expertise in the field but it's worth noting.
- IphtashuFitz, on 11/19/2008, -1/+55Here's another approach they could conceivably take:
Back at a previous job where we had literally thousands of servers (I worked at a non-google search company) we once had a recall of around 500 motherboards from a major computer vendor. Before the recall we had a few cases of servers locking up hard so that you couldn't even power cycle them. The only thing you could do was unplug the server then plug it back in, but when that happened then one of the chips on the motherboard would literally burst into flames. It was eventually tracked by the manufacturer down to a defective electrolyte in capacitors used in the power regulator circuits. The electrolyte was manufactured by a small company in China and ended up in thousands of servers made by this one vendor.
If something like that could be done by mistake then I could certainly see the possibility of doing something similar in a malicious manner. Adding a sleeper circuit into a microchip that you manufacture probably wouldn't be all that difficult. Design it so that it just burns out the entire microchip when desired and come up with some way of being able to trigger it remotely and you could wreak havoc on entire industries if desired. Imagine what would happen if the servers at places like Google, Amazon, etc. started burning out at a massive scale... - ineptsavant, on 11/19/2008, -9/+54This is sensationalist crap. If you know even a little bit about networks and software you'd know that this is impossible. You might be able to do something simple like a keylogger(though that would be noticed before to long). Being able to pull files out of an operating system regardless of file storing conventions/formats/etc, package them, and send them to a central location without being detected by ANYONE is ridiculous.
/writing this from a lenovo thinkpad - Sirlolalot, on 11/19/2008, -1/+42Goddammit, my foil hat's "Made in China".
- rushiku, on 11/19/2008, -2/+43"I fondle myself whilst biting the wax tadpole"?
um, thanks for sharing - acrodev, on 11/19/2008, -0/+40You shouldn't have clicked that link in your email.
- fuhcough, on 11/19/2008, -2/+41Apparently the gov is scared that these chips are located in certain Chinese-manufactured USB thumb drives...
Yesterday morning NETWARCOM just banned the use of USB thumb drives from all Navy, RDT&E, and legacy networks (read: every network currently in use by the Navy and supporting civil servants/contractors).
Their solution = CD/RWs. - scully32, on 11/19/2008, -12/+49Time to bust out the aluminum foil hat.
- CarStan, on 11/19/2008, -8/+42
我有一个欢迎我们的新中国霸主 - m0tbaillie, on 11/19/2008, -1/+32Bzzttt *****. The Navy banned the use of all non-secure unencrypted USB thumb drives. IronKey drives are still allowed. Also, it has nothing to do with this article or its implications whatsoever, it has to do with the fact that people could bring any number of goodies from their home computers onto a government network and they'd be none the wiser. Most networks are brought down from the inside, not the outside.
- strictnein, on 11/19/2008, -9/+36I call BS. How will they communicate with all these magical chips, exactly?
- trer, on 11/19/2008, -12/+38The irony is that we are so scared of supposed Chinese espionage, we forget that in April 2001 it was a United States spy plane that was caught spying on China and a Chinese pilot was killed during the ensuing skirmish. Spying goes both ways, but only when the Chinese do it is it evil and insidious. When Americans do it, it's because we're trying to "preserve the free world". Can we get off our high horse now and realize that we are just as guilty as every one else?
- georgemason01, on 11/19/2008, -0/+25That only happens with the stuff they sell to consumers. All their real effort is going into the technology they are using to take over the world.
- Hush, on 11/19/2008, -1/+24Cartman was right
- HonoredMule, on 11/19/2008, -0/+22Bingo. Computers are complex devices made of dozens of proprietary black-box devices interacting only by open standards--drawing power and transferring specific data over system buses. Gaining access to a hardware system requires a much higher level of interaction than mere presence of another component. The more interesting be the content or behaviour, the more highly abstracted is the implementation.
The MOST important unit, the CPU, is the only one that actually has the capacity to direct anything, and it probably contains the most tightly protected trade secrets of any component. The level of complexity in a cpu pretty effectively defies reverse engineering even if the Chinese were able to get their hands on an etching blueprint. Even after THAT hurdle, the logic required to commandeer CPU execution in a way that does anything useful would require a complete redesign that would double transistor count...and be obsolete long before it even achieved market penetration.
Perhaps more feasible would be an extra embedded processor with its own OS (thus rendering the discussion about needing OS source code inaccurate), but it would have to fight with the real cpu over what any given system resource was doing or what state it was in. In other words, actually doing any thing would result in an instant blue screen. Also, it's presence on a motherboard (where it would have to be) would be pretty frikin' obvious, as it would have to be connected to everything the same way the CPU is...the motherboard would have to be designed to support it, and that support would be as clear as the coper etching scrawled all over that board.
The higher level post noting concerns about USB thumb drives is certainly feasible if not probable, but this...not so much. - snea, on 11/19/2008, -4/+25Mine did that once too but all it came out to was my dick getting whacked by the PSU fan. :(
- netneutrality, on 11/19/2008, -0/+20Don't forget Magic Lantern, a neat little keylogger program by the FBI which they asked Norton and McAfee to program their anti-virus software to discreetly ignore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Lantern_%28soft ...
Whoop-de-doo for government spying... - inactive, on 11/19/2008, -0/+20***** black lotus. The bitch stole my base.
- inactive, on 11/19/2008, -0/+19The AF did the same, but not just Chinese All USB thumb drives, Compact Flash, external Hard Drives etc are banned until further notice.
And CDRW's are banned as well, only CD-R or DVD-R - cubicledrone, on 11/19/2008, -3/+22Like our economy?
- roctimo, on 11/19/2008, -0/+19Holy ***** hell.
I would rather not imagine that. - jer21, on 11/19/2008, -0/+18Although a lot of the pornstars here don't have any grass on the field.
- diggopolous, on 11/19/2008, -0/+18If you go around with toasters quoting Chairman Mao,
Ya aint gonna make it with anybody, anyhow.
- John Lenin - tylerni7, on 11/19/2008, -1/+19This really makes no sense whatsoever.
Are you people that believe this saying there there is a chip that is capable of interfacing with the network, constantly monitoring the network stack transparently, that is also able to not only interface directly with the hard drive, but read files off the hard drive and decide what is useful (unless you think they programed everyone's computer to just upload the entire contents of the hard drive to some super secret multi-exabyte storage facility in China) and then is able to create packets and then send them back to China, all without anyone noticing?
Seriously? This makes no sense... - Murdats, on 11/19/2008, -2/+19so its in the modem? how does it access the hard drive? can it automagically read all file systems? what if you are using wireless instead of ethernet? or is it in all network hardware? is it on the motherboard and has all file systems and network drivers inbuilt.
unless next you are going to say that windows, linux and mac os are actually built by the chinese with this secret back door I can not see how this could work in a way that would
a. work at all
2. be so unknown with people who actually know computers
iii. not require a conspiracy on a global scale with millions of people over decades. - Anpheus, on 11/19/2008, -0/+17They hardly need trojans to do that, we already -pay- them to construct a large number of our gadgets and toys, our patented products. We pay them to install the firmware and ship it back and, what, expect that information to remain completely safe?
I don't know how they could possibly make knock-offs *eyeroll* - inactive, on 11/19/2008, -0/+16Err, don't you mean anyone inside the US?
- inactive, on 11/19/2008, -1/+16mxmj sez:
"Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot.
- Vladimir Lennon "
RWR sez:
"...Give peace a chance."
- John Lenin - TimDigg, on 11/19/2008, -2/+17Generals was so underated
- buddyfarr, on 11/19/2008, -5/+20"Life is like a box of chocolates...."
Forrest Gump... - strictnein, on 11/19/2008, -1/+16So they're just going to blast packets all over the place and hope somehow they make it to affected hardware?
- scubaninja, on 11/19/2008, -3/+18The difference is that the Soviets were covertly stealing that technology from the USA. When the USA found out about this, they introduced subtle flaws into the plans that they knew would be stolen.
A better analogy would be if we were trying to steal unreleased source code from China to use in a device, and they found out and introduced subtle security problems into the code they knew we would steal.
It's not really the same thing at all. - ChayD, on 11/19/2008, -9/+24I guess the whole terrrrrrrism thing has worn so thin that they have to find something new to keep that ol' paranoia level high. Next new thing: "Mass covert surveillance - the evil communist Chinese have begun hiding secret video cameras an transmitters in Chinese made children's toys, and concealing remotely-activated nanotechnology poison delivery systems in Chinese restaurant food. Even when you're on the can, the Chinese government are watching you with their highly advanced toilet roll cameras. Be afraid, be very afraid."
But seriously, I can't really see any advantage of having so-called secret chips in computers, most of the crap they'd get would be family photos, inane waffle from people's IM conversations and maybe the odd gamesave. Any extra paranoid corporations/governments would probably only source their kit from proven suppliers who have no connections with "the enemy". - CTK14A, on 11/19/2008, -7/+21"Da Nang Hooker: Hey, you got girlfriend VIETNAM? Me so horny. Me love you long time."
- trghpy, on 11/19/2008, -0/+14Huh,
Suddenly all my super cheap Chinese made thumb drives are all looking suspicious.
I probably shouldn't use that "super secure" drive that arrived with out solicitation... - saiajin, on 11/19/2008, -0/+14Um...Aren't they ALL made in China?
- mxmj, on 11/19/2008, -1/+15Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot.
- Vladimir Lennon - raydeen, on 11/19/2008, -1/+14Don't worry. My team and I are already on it. We have already amassed 150 Gigaquads of porn and are adding more every day. The sun will grow cold before they are able to sift through it all.
- sponeil, on 11/19/2008, -0/+13Not unless you get it wet or feed it after midnight.
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