Report Says China Will Demand Source Code

An anonymous reader alerts us to a two-week-old story that hasn't gotten much traction in the press to date. A Japanese newspaper and the AP report that China plans to demand source code from hardware manufacturers, and ban the sale of products from companies that don't comply. China is calling this an "obligatory accreditation system for IT security products." The plan is to go into effect next May, according to sources. "Products expected to be subject to the system are those equipped with secret coding, such as [a] contactless smart card system developed by Sony Corp., digital copiers, and computer servers. The Chinese government said it needs the source code to prevent computer viruses taking advantage of software vulnerabilities and to shut out hackers. However, this explanation is unlikely to satisfy concerns that disclosed information might be handed from the Chinese government to Chinese companies. There also are fears that Chinese intelligence services could exploit such confidential information by making it easier to break codes used in... digital devices."

Comments

The Chinese are VERY dishonest.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Expect to see more Sorny goods if this goes ahead!"

Maybe not. Maybe: "Expect to see a lot of counterfeit products labeled Sony, in the same kind of packaging Sony uses."

Ever since the days of the DOS operating system, when it was only the Taiwanese who supplied computer parts, the Chinese have been extremely dishonest. They would deliver computer parts until a distributor got established. They would get paid when a load was delivered to a ship in Taiwan. But, the would eventually deliver a huge load of junk, stuff that had failed testing but had been saved for that purpose. That would put the U.S. distributor out of business.

At the same time, there would be a Chinese distributor in town that just began doing business, selling the same items.

Now that everyone has paid to build factories and complicated procedures in China, they are very vulnerable to Chinese control.

Here are a few stories, chosen from thousands. The Chinese governments, in Taiwan and mainland China, have always pretended to be interested in stopping counterfeiting:

FBI and Chinese seize $500 million of counterfeit software.

Dangerous Fakes: How counterfeit, defective computer components from China are getting into U.S. warplanes and ships.

YouTube videos about Chinese counterfeiting

The World's Greatest Fakes: Chinese Copies Are Making Their Way Back To U.S.

Heparin Find May Point to Chinese Counterfeiting

Chinese Product Counterfeiting Causes US Job Layoffs