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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.'"
Symantec Chief Technology Officer Mark Bregman [...] was advised to buy a new cellphone for each visit
Yes, heaven forbid China learns the secret of bloated antivirus software that ignores state-sponsored keyloggers.
Amnesty International
I'm sure glad that the laptops and cellphones in question weren't MADE in China in the first place...
Oh, wait..
This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
How about using phones and notebooks manufactured in China? Is that ok or do we have to assume they are bugged-at-factory? Are the US starting to move their production lines back to home?
Data may be weightless, but how about hardware key logging devices?
:(
The real story in the article should be "CTO of world's largest Windows security software company uses a mac."
Yeah, but only the 1's contain data. The 0's are empty.
It's not racial profiling, it's (current or previous) nationality profiling, you know, the information that's visible on your passport?
"..."
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).
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".
Don't they have a right to know how their money is spent? ;)
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.
...odds are you'll end up bugging a lot of 19 year old teenage girls going off to college instead of corporate execs.
Either way, you win.
This is why the bugs are only activated when they detect an integer overflow error in any document called "personal finances.xls". With this method, they can be sure they're on an American executive's computer.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
This, friends, is the real reason behind the famed Apple design of no user serviceable parts. Not to save weight, not to give Apple a few measly bucks for battery replacements but to prevent FOREIGN ESPIONAGE. Think about that that when you drop your Dell and 12 little plastic panels pop off.
You Windows folks aught to be shot as spies.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Maybe he just has sensitive material about his company on the laptop. I've seen people in management who don't let anyone in the company, even IT, look at their laptops and it isn't because they think the IT department is incompetent or have no respect for them.
how much does data weigh? I'm sure the 1's are heavier than the 0's....
In the punchcard / papertape era, it was obviously the other way around, 0s are heavier, 1s (punched out) are lighter.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
To be fair China is still a Command economy that let's "Capitalism" play because it's a useful way to get people to work harder.. they are a long way from the idea of "Free Markets". This is where it's not a "round" world.. The Chinese government has their eye on the 50 year game and is more than willing to tie up all of a natural resource... and throw people in jail when the "free market" price goes up.
While the US punishes "intervention" by state banks in places like Japan and Korea for making sure their chip makers don't go under, China is stacking the deck on a NATIONAL level for resources... setting prices that corporations are allowed to SELL to China for.. and nobody is really stopping them. Just last week China "decided" they weren't going to be exporting any more rare earth metals (needed for high power magnets in electronics) They just issued a directive it wasn't allowed to be exported anymore....for any price. Back in 2007 one of the things that knocked US auto makers on their butts was China using scrap US steel instead of imported ore. It nearly doubled the price of scrap here (ironically bought with trade surplus dollars no less!) and made it even harder to complete with Asian companies... it was the straw that caused a good deal of the auto maker meltdown earlier this year. China manipulates their currency by not allowing dollars to be converted into Chinese money except for specific state-sponsored investments, and they don't allow US companies to take their Chinese profits OUT of the country either. It sets up a situation where they pile up money in US banks to buy US resources... but US companies can't pull their capital profits OUT of China...
China is playing the long game, highly protectionist and stacking the deck with our own money and resources against us. It's economic "war" played at the highest level and the US government has no grasp that the "invisible hand' won't save them.
An airplane builder had its proprietary metal reverse engineered by asian companies. They did a great job with security, so couldn't figure out how the metals got sampled. People can't just go scrape parts off a military airplane, especially when it's not built yet.
They gave tours and you couldn't take pictures, but you could see planes being built.
Turns out asians were using very soft-soled shoes. So while looking up and pointing, they pressed their feet down on metal filings, and when they drove away they had samples in their shoes, to be analyzed later.
Sneaky bastards work in corporate espionage.
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.
No, the Soviets did that. Here's an old George Will column relating the tale. The subject of the column is Soviet industrial espionage.
It is. There was a story a few months ago about the Department of Defense using router hardware sent to them with onboard hacks.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!