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Feds Ask IT Execs To Throw Away Cellphones After Visiting China
sholto writes "US intelligence agencies are advising top US IT executives to weigh their laptops before and after visiting China as one of many precautions against corporate espionage. Symantec Chief Technology Officer Mark Bregman said he was also advised to buy a new cellphone for each visit and to throw it away after leaving. Bregman said he kept a separate MacBook Air for use in China, which he re-images on returning, but claimed he didn't subscribe to the strictest policies. 'Bregman said the US was also concerned about its companies employing Chinese coders, particularly in security.'"
malicious hardware (however likely or not this may be).
I would argue that it isn't all that unlikely. Keylogging devices can be cheaply purchased for consumers, and we already know of cases where China has broken into hotel rooms, stollen blackberry's, etc.
I actually consider it unlikely that they WOULDN'T be installing keyloggers in the laptops of execs who frequently travel to china.
:(
For all the barking of the agencies, it's obvious they haven't encountered the treatment I and my colleagues have encountered re-entering the US from abroad only to have laptops have the data examined, and that data be copied for "further analysis" or even the laptop confiscated for an undetermined amount of time. It's just a matter of time before other countries make the same advertisment about travel to the US.... What's the old saying (Kettle calling the Pot black).
Pick your pocket while you're waking down the street, copy the contents across into a trojaned version, and then slip the replacement back into the victim's pocket. Or, if that's hard, tell them they dropped their phone and hand it back.
It's also a good idea to make sure you turn your phone on at the airport before you get on the plane to China. When a phone registers with a new cell, it passes on the ID of the last cell it was affiliated with (to allow routing tables to be updated). MI6 was wondering a few years ago how the Russians were able to spot their people so easily, until they realised that they were turning off their phones at the headquarters in London when they went in and then not turning them back on again until they stepped off the plane. As soon as they turned them back on, they broadcast a nice little message to the cell tower at the airport saying 'the last place I went to was very near the MI6 building' which was flagging them for extra surveillance.
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The ethics problem is represented by an experience I had while at an American research university. A Chinese faculty member met with the Chinese students in order to tell them in America, cheating and other ethical breaches are not considered a good way to get ahead. This suggested certain cultural differences which should not be used to discriminate, but need to be recognized because of the risks involved.
While I certaily wasn't at that talk (and I suspect that neither were you), I'm willing to bet that you don't completely understand what the talk was about. I'm on the faculty of a top tier reserch insitution conducting immunological research - I've had several Chinese graduate students, have sat on the international admissions committee, and have given the talk that you describe to our new Chinese students. The problem isn't one of ethics, but one of culture. The Chinese don't regard plagiarism the same way we do - in fact, the educational system encourages it in a way as it is an honor, of sorts, to 'plagiarize' your mentor. Additionally, a lot of these students don't have confidence in their english, so whey they write they occassionally take an idea from another article and copy it verbatim thinking "that's exactly what I was thinking, and I don't have to worry about incorrect english" - in most cases, there is not an intention of deceit. The Chinese certainly have their issues (admitting mistakes and nationalism), but I wouldn't call them unethical.
As a non-American citizen I feel the reverse holds true. When I enter the USA from Canada I should bring a seperate bare-bones, no thrills cell phone and an empty laptop. Because if the TSA decides that they want to snoop through my electronics there is no telling what information they are pulling out, government created spyware being installed, or some sort of magical chip that transmits everything I am doing back to them.
See, Conspiracy theories work both ways...
I know you said all that in jest, but you are more right than you suspect. And the situation with DHS and the TSA is very close to that (Other than installing hardware.. though the law does explicitly allow them to, even if they don't do it now)
That isn't a conspiracy or paranoia, its a well proven fact.
No, the Soviets did that. Here's an old George Will column relating the tale. The subject of the column is Soviet industrial espionage.
Yes, bugged/compromised hardware coming out of China is most definitely a concern.
TRUST ME, people in high places in the Fed Gov look into this stuff on a regular basis.
With the first link, the chain is forged.