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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.'"
Data may be weightless, but how about hardware key logging devices?
:(
Here's the thing...
If EVERY laptop and cell phone phoned home to China to give away secrets, somebody is gonna notice. REAL quick.
They need to more selectively target folks if they want to actually be able to get away with hacking a machine to send them secret data.
It's not racial profiling, it's (current or previous) nationality profiling, you know, the information that's visible on your passport?
"..."
I read the article, and I stopped when it became clear that this information comes from Symantec. Your favorite over-paranoid, FUD-spreading company.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. And we have plenty of evidence that the Chinese really are. Actually, the intelligence agencies probably just forgot to say "because we're doing all this stuff to their top executives when they visit us".
Remember the Cold War, when the Soviets were 10-foot-tall super soldiers who could read your mind and fart atomic infernos out of their asses? Everything was thought to be a commie conspiracy.
Is this happening again, but now we are instead fearing the Chinese?
I have a bad feeling about this...
... all they have to do is to contact several of the thousands of Chinese nationals ...
History shows that approaching US Nationals with enough money can also have the desired affect.
Maybe I'm taking this a little personally because I'm an IT guy. I dunno. But I do know I'd rather not work in IT for a large, tech-based company where the CTO is quoted publicly as saying: "I don't let my IT department near my laptop".
Anybody else have a WTF moment when they saw that? Or is it only me?
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... No more fear mongering, okay? Lets play nice kids.
Sounds sensible to me.
I'm sure it IS a good idea to throw away any cellphone or laptop that has any Symantec product installed.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
You're falling into the same trap that got the electronic voting people. It is not at all obvious if an electronic device has a backdoor function. You can change the software to react to a complicated trigger sequence, or worse, you can change the hardware to do it. Unless you deconstruct the device to the point of rendering it unusable, there is no way to reliably detect "sleeper" functions. This is especially dangerous if the bug is in all devices and not just a few "interesting" ones, so that comparisons between devices don't show any deviation.
America has that same childish and ignorant "for mother country" thing going on as well
If we had international laws, policies, standards of living, etc. I'd agree with you. As we don't, I don't see a problem with wanting to take care of our own. International espionagers aren't going to share information--they only want to take it.
It's similar to the prisoner's dilemma. We'd probably all do better overall if we all worked together. China's not going to work with us, though, which means that if we just give them the technology, we're the suckers.
I understand the concern but...all our computers are made in China anyway. How dow e know if the Hardware isn't betraying us already?
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.