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India, China Try Import Regulations As Security Tools

Posted by timothy on from the you-can't-enter-our-theme-park dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Register reports that the Chinese government is forcing vendors to cough up the source code to their encryption alogrithms before they can sell their equipment to the Chinese government. The EU doesn't seem to like it, but if I were in their position I'd want the same thing." China's biggest neighbor goes further; another anonymous reader writes "Telco equipment from China could have spyware that gives access to telcom networks in India. The Indian government has officially told mobile operators not to import any equipment manufactured by Chinese vendors, including Huawei and ZTE. The ban order follows concerns raised by the Home Ministry that telecom equipment from some countries could have spyware or malware that gives intelligence agencies across the border access to telecom networks in India. The biggest gainers from the move could be Ericsson, Nokia, and Siemens, which have been losing market share to aggressive Chinese equipment-makers in India."

7 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. The only encryption algorithms worth a damn by al0ha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    are the ones that are open to peer review. So Kudos to the Chinese for being smart enough to make these idiot companies with closed-source encryption technologies provide them with the source code for review. Good encryption does not rely on obfuscation of code and processes!

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    1. Re:The only encryption algorithms worth a damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think that's why they want to view the source code...

  2. Copying by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're going to give your source code to the Chinese, you know for certain they will copy it and never buy a product from you again.

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  3. What a novel concept by srussia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Security through security!

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  4. Re:Trust by FooAtWFU · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm just reminded of the old security-oriented definition of Trust: the person you trust is the person who can break your security. It's a perfectly healthy attitude to trust people (/businesses/nations) as little as possible when the security of your data is at risk. In arena of IT security, we need less "trust" and more "verify".

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  5. What's the point exactly? by c0d3g33k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unless the source can be compiled from scratch and used in place of the pre-compiled versions, including flashing of firmware, creation of installable ROM images or OS installs, having source code guaranteed by analysis to be exploit-free gains the user nothing. There could still be spyware in the final product. Short of self-installing, I guess creation of bit-equivalent or checksum-equivalent binaries would be good enough as a verification mechanism.

  6. Re:Trust by Arker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nobody wins when no one trusts each other.

    Au contraire, when it comes to security, everyone wins when no one trusts each other.

    The chinese move, at least, is long overdue. No one should ever trust a device whose source code is secret.

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