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China Telco Replaces Cisco Devices Over Security Concerns

hackingbear writes "China Unicom, the country's second largest telecom operator, has replaced Cisco Systems routers in one of the country's most important backbone networks, citing security reasons [due to bugs and vulnerability.) The move came after a congressional report branded Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. security threats in the United States, citing bugs and vulnerability (rather than actual evidence of spying.) Surprising to us, up to now, Cisco occupies a large market share in China. It accounts for over a 70 percent share of China Telecom's 163 backbone network and over an 80 percent share of China Unicom's 169 backbone network. Let's wait to see who's the winner in this trade war disguised as national security."

24 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Seems smart to me by PlusFiveTroll · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why should the Chinese trust American equipment and vice versa. It's not like these are objects that get sent to another country never to be see again, they get put on networks, many available publicly.

    1. Re:Seems smart to me by JustOK · · Score: 3, Funny

      How come you don't talk about the new and improved paranoia?

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    2. Re:Seems smart to me by TheLink · · Score: 2

      They shouldn't. The USA actually has a track record of putting backdoors into stuff. e.g. Lotus Notes. http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/2/2898/1.html

      By the way if you use Windows, as long as Microsoft signs something, your computer will trust it. And if you also use IE, you can delete all the CAs in your browser except the microsoft one, once you go to an https website, the required CA certs will be readded automagically as long as they have been signed by the Microsoft one (try it yourself on a test machine - but if you accidentally delete all CAs you're going to have problems doing updates). To disable an untrusted CA you have to keep the cert in and unmark all the checkboxes. But what if you don't know the untrusted CA in advance?

      --
    3. Re:Seems smart to me by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 2

      I know. But I ain't gonna leak it.

      I still want to live.

      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  2. national insecurity by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not a trade war disguised as national security, it's national security disguised as a trade war. There's been no evidence presented of any backdoors. I'm quite certain that by now, many intelligence organizations have taken the chips apart and scanned them down and if they'd found anything there would have been a reaction. But there hasn't been -- it's just been hints, allegations, and rumor. It's disinformation, because there's no truth to go on, just more communist red-baiting. Not to say China doesn't have the resources, and doesn't have a long and inglorious history of electronic espionage... but so does France and nobody says a peep about them.

    The United States isn't worried about China because it poses a military threat, or a "cyber" threat, or a terrorist threat... they're scared shitless because this country has clubbed and beaten its rivals over the head with economic policies and rules. China has us by the balls on rare earth metals, and most of our consumer electronics are made in Asia. If they decide to play economic hardball, we're going to lose. For a country that's grown complacent being able to pick up a phone and make every other country on the planet bend over and drop their pants to please the all-mighty american dollar... we're fucking terrified that there's a couple billion people about to industrialize and their economy is a jaugernaut. It won't be long before our military is the only thing remarkable about our country -- and it won't be sustainable without a solid economy to back it.

    In 20 years, we're going to be facing the same situation the Soviet Union did: They died because they tried to maintain their military at the expense of their economy. This is a game we're going to lose, badly. That's why every trade sanction, disinformation campaign, and high profile story about places like FoxConn are desperately sought after by our military and economic leaders... if China manages to develop its economy much more, we're screwed.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:national insecurity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Posting as AC, because this is one of my areas of research. And it is impossible to "tear down the chips" like you think it is. If you only alter the chips in 1 out of 400 routers... thats enough to provide a lot of access in and of itself. And this would be statistically very hard to find. (even if you dissolve the upper layers of the IC and then progressively examine the ICs)

      Plus this isn't an issue of just the hardware alone, it has to do with the intractability of hardware AND software combinations. Perhaps the "backdoor"s only "activate" when they receive a certainly formatted UDP packet, etc...

      It isn't easy to find things like this in IC circuits... despite how easy you would think it is...

      This PROBABLY isn't as big an issue as the politicians are hyping it up (on both sides of the isle) BUT... just like how the US has ITAR (International Trafficking of Arms Regulations) about both weapons and "things that can help a foreign military... and POTENTIAL backdoor into a major USA ISP... is s potential security (and national security{in terms of infrastructure}) issue...

    2. Re:national insecurity by artor3 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A few things...

      I'm quite certain that by now, many intelligence organizations have taken the chips apart and scanned them down [for backdoors] and if they'd found anything there would have been a reaction.

      You are grossly underestimating the complexity of modern microchips. What you're describing simply isn't feasible for any chip of even modest complexity. To hunt for backdoors, you would really need to look at the HDL files, and even then, it wouldn't be hard to hide something malicious in one of the hundreds of test modes.

      China has us by the balls on rare earth metals, and most of our consumer electronics are made in Asia. If they decide to play economic hardball, we're going to lose.

      You're also overestimating China's position. There are plenty of rare earth metals outside of China. It's actually to China's detriment that they're the chief supplier right now. As the supply of easily accessible minerals goes down, the value will go up -- the countries that wait the longest before ramping production will benefit the most. As for consumer electronics, what are they going to do? Stop making iPhones? If anything, that could be a short term boon to our economy, as we would suddenly have a motive to build a bunch of new factories and hire a bunch of workers. The increased cost of electronics would bug people for a while, but eventually they'd get used to it, and maybe even stop throwing away perfectly good phones every couple years. Meanwhile, what happens to China's economy when they cut out their largest trade partner?

      Now, I agree that we spend waaay too much on our military, and but your attitude is way too negative. I get that there's a lot of anti-American propaganda on the internet, and it's easy to be taken in by it, but it's mostly baseless. China will develop for a while longer, their people will demand a fair wage, their quality of life will increase, and things will even back out. The Chinese people aren't a bunch of worker ants, emotionlessly toiling away for the good of the hive. The media likes to present them that way, just as they used to do with Japan, because it's scary, and scared people consume more news.

      People often predict end times in their life time. I suspect it's because life can be dull and a part of them wants to live in "interesting times". The truth is much more banal. England's a perfect example of a "fallen" superpower, and they seem to be doing quite alright.

    3. Re:national insecurity by aNonnyMouseCowered · · Score: 2

      The US because of its electoral Olympics is in better shape to deal with any social disorder. It's entertainment good enough to divert the peoples attention from the system's real problems. No need for the large-scale supression of protests.

      Even if it has the trade surplus, China cannot politically afford an Iraq or even Afghanistan-scale war at the moment without triggering social unrest that dwarfs the Cultural Revolution. The gap between richest and poorest there is larger than it's ever been in the US or Russia. The US can stagnate for a decade before the lower/middle-classes literally rise up in arms, while China has to maintain its "tiger" growth rate just to keep its mass of workers from having other ideas besides dutifully assembling toys and iPhones.

      The only China crisis I see would come from the collapse of the present system and the rise of a new Mao.

    4. Re:national insecurity by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      1. You're just going to have to trust me on this: it is not possible to find backdoors in microchips by "tearing them down". The CIA or NSA or whoever wouldn't even both to try. Instead, they would bribe some Chinese worker to tell them, or they would drop a flash drive with a virus in the parking lot and gain access to the company's emails, or something like that.

      2. If we couldn't get electronics from China, we'd get them from Korea or Japan or Taiwan or Thailand or wherever. Or make them here, thanks to advances in automation. The reduction in supply would raise prices for a while, but we could adjust. Your OPEC analogy doesn't work because oil is a resource that is specific to certain areas. Labor is not.

      3. Absolutely agree on why people hate the US, and I agree that our foreign policy shouldn't involve playing world cop (especially since we seem to be a dirty cop). But the fact that people's reasons for anger towards the US are valid does not mean that their predictions of America's fall will come true.

      4. "The Chinese are worker ants." Now come on, that's just offensive. They're humans, just like everywhere else. People died building the Great Wall, they also died building the transcontinental railroad in the US. The US developed to the point that people weren't willing to put up with that anymore, and China will too.

      5. "Britain's navy was once to be feared, ... [now] they're a mere shadow of what they once were". Wait, weren't you complaining about America's imperialism a couple paragraphs ago? What Britain "once was", was a tyrannical empire that killed countless people and destroyed nations all over the world to enrich themselves. Now they're a much calmer nation that provides good quality of life for their people, and doesn't go around hurting others. Why, exactly, would it be bad for America to follow in their footsteps?

    5. Re:national insecurity by m.ducharme · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why do people hate us Americans? New survey reveals it's because we're bombing them! Apparently, 100% of the respondents stated they didn't like getting blown up.

      That's a great .sig, right there.

      --
      Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
    6. Re:national insecurity by scubamage · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As for America's "proactive" foreign policy, no foreign army has set foot on American soil in anger since 1815.

      The crew of the USS Arizona would like to have a word with you.

  3. Re:In other news 2 years later... by hawguy · · Score: 2

    Pretty sure that the Chinese know how to make just as good a router as Americans. Heck, they've copied from Americans in the beginning and they are fully capable of advancing the state-of-the-art by themselves now.

    FTFY

  4. Re:Who Cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, but then we will all have to start from zero.

    How are your skills for a 1790 environment?

    Lot of well educated folks right here will only be good for physical labor.

  5. Re:Who Cares? by JustOK · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm pretty sure the fries I just got at McDonalds were about 3 fries short. Whether by weight or by count, I'm not sure, but if you extrapolate, it probably constitutes a massive fraud.

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
  6. Re:Who Cares? by hawguy · · Score: 2

    Lot of well educated folks right here will only be good for physical labor.

    That's a good thing since there will be lots of need for physical labor.

  7. A trade war with whom? by macbeth66 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's wait to see who's the winner in this trade war disguised as national security."

    A trade with whom? Both companies' equipment is made in China. Cisco just sells their stuff.

    As for paranoia, the US should be paranoid about Cisco stuff be made in China. It certainly gives me the willies. As does the fact that our medicine and vitamins are made over there as well. But that has had a good affect on me, I guess, as I am eating more local grown foods and staying away from processed foods. Except for Heath bars. Can't resist those.

    1. Re:A trade war with whom? by BulletMagnet · · Score: 2

      Both companies' equipment is made in China. Cisco just sells their stuff.

      Uhm my ASA 5505 says Made In Mexcio.

    2. Re:A trade war with whom? by m00sh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As for paranoia, the US should be paranoid about Cisco stuff be made in China. It certainly gives me the willies.

      Don't worry, the generation after you won't share the same sentiment. Each successive generation have seen larger and larger portions of the world as their "empathy circle". People identifying themselves by country is just a few generations old; before that people identified themselves more by the city or province they were from and before that a clan they belonged to. The future generations will see the a Chinese as just another person living their lives and trying to generally make things better. They certainly won't get willies imagining them as enemies fervently trying to take something away from you.

  8. Re:In other news 2 years later... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You didn't FTFY. American companies willingly taught the Chinese how to build high-tech. They shipped thousands of manufacturing jobs to Asia so that they could save a buck or two. The Chinese did more than just copy; they learned.

    I'm not saying there wasn't *any* corporate espionage (on both sides, BTW). But the effects on the American economy of spying pales in comparison to the effects wrought by the gutting of America's manufacturing abilities.

  9. Re:Who Cares? by couchslug · · Score: 2

    The storm will peter out, the global financial system will not collapse, and minor wars in the Middle East have been going on for literally thousands of years with nothing of value lost.

    Nothing new or particularly interesting going on.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  10. Re:Who Cares? by Alien+Being · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, where's the fucking storm tracker I came here to see? I'm hoping that Sandy blows NYC off the map, causes some butterfly to fart in turn creating sister storms to destroy China, the middle east and Tulsa. I fucking hate Tulsa.

  11. You should care by Andy+Prough · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We can only hope that the global financial system collapses. Maybe then, it can be rebuilt into something that actually works.

    Hope you enjoy starving/freezing to death. If you manage to hoard enough canned food and heating oil to survive, enjoy being beaten to death by thieves.

    In the meantime, a drastically reduced worldwide population can enjoy its "new global financial system" - i.e. - a "king" or "lord" (the heartless guy with the most weapons) tells you what you are allowed to use for money, what you are allowed to buy, how much of it you can buy, etc. And of course, you can kiss industry and manufacturing goodbye since there will be no capital investment and no methods of distribution - so your shopping choices will be, shall we say, very limited. Talk to a North Korean refugee when you get a chance - they'll tell you how much fun the new "financial system" will be.

  12. Re:In other news 2 years later... by morcego · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It is interesting how easily people forget.

    Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Japan was the one copying, making knockouts and whatnot. But what happened is exactly what you described: they learned. And that is exactly what is happening to China right now.

    --
    morcego
  13. Re:In other news 2 years later... by m00sh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Japan was the one copying, making knockouts and whatnot. But what happened is exactly what you described: they learned. And that is exactly what is happening to China right now.

    Just because China and Japan share some similarities does not mean they will keep increasing their similarity. The world is at a different stage now than when Japan was starting out. Power was manufacturing then but now it's information and knowledge. It was about making stuff back then but now it's about creating stuff. The modern environment may not take China where Japan went.

    On one side, when China is sufficiently ahead technologically, China may decide not to be the factory of the world and dedicate millions of people and billions of yuan to research into curing cancer, solving clean energy problems and so on and generally making the lives better instead chasing consumerism. The Chinese authorities have to make things better for the population every year for everyone to be quiet and maybe everyone will have quality of life above the west European countries eventually because of this.

    Or they may the big Japan producing gizmos for the world, slowly producing mega-corporations.

    Or they may crash and burn.

    There is a lot of murmur that capitalism has served well in the manufacturing phase of our human history but might not be best suited for post-manufacturing economies. Sitting around waiting for someone somewhere to make some breakthrough and creating industries out of it might not be the best way forward. Maybe national and global push towards solving the world's problems might be the way instead of hoping the invisible hand fixes it. Maybe a system like China where large central decisions are made and pseudo-capitalism creates efficiencies in those central pushes is the best way forward, or maybe the old communist ugliness will rear it's ugly head and create massive inefficiencies. I guess we have to wait and see where the world is headed and in that frame where China will be.