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Chinese Agency Linked To Cyber-Espionage Operations Will Review Source Code of Foreign Firms (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by msmash on from the growing-concern dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: According to a new law voted in 2016 and which came into effect starting June 1, 2017, foreign companies activating in China could be forced to provide access to their source code to a state agency that has been recently linked to China's nation-state cyber-espionage campaigns. China's new cyber-security law (CSL) gives the China Information Technology Evaluation Center (CNITSEC) the legal power to conduct "national security reviews" of foreign companies that want to activate on the Chinese market. According to articles in the CSL, this also includes the power to request access to any app or service's source code. Chinese authorities say this is to protect citizens by searching the source code of foreign companies for secret mechanisms that collect data on Chinese users and send it to foreign servers.

9 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Listen up software companies by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bend over and prepare to have your software stolen by the world's number one IP rights violator.

    I hope the Trump administration starts putting real teeth in pushback against this kind of crap. As in blanket embargo on all goods imported from China until they start respecting our IP and stop manipulating their currency... I would be happy to buy lifetime guarantee products from the US instead of the chicom trash that stocks most department store shelves.

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    1. Re:Listen up software companies by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would be happy to buy lifetime guarantee products from the US instead of the chicom trash

      I would be happy to buy products with open source, regardless of where they are manufactured.

    2. Re:Listen up software companies by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 4, Informative

      Doing so would entail substantial financial risk for the Trump business conglomerate:

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-02/ivanka-trump-s-china-sewn-line-turns-profit-at-a-political-cost

      http://www.businessinsider.com/ivanka-trump-clothing-line-made-in-china-hong-kong-2017-2

    3. Re:Listen up software companies by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not really. Get back to me when source code for software starts walking out the back door of the NSA and starts being sold legally with no recourse under a different brand name in the US. Because that is what we are talking about in China.

      "Get your Wandows 10 here, $10 per license for unlimited use and resale. The same exact thing as Windows 10 at a fraction of the price. Only slightly pirated."

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    4. Re:Listen up software companies by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Last time I checked, Hong Kong was a limited democracy form of government and not part of mainland China.

      Check again. Things changed in 1997.

      Also, when you buy clothes "from Hong Kong", that means they are shipped through HK, not made there.

    5. Re:Listen up software companies by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This, right here. If its open source, there's nothing to try and steal.

      I am curious, though - what's to stop companies from telling China to piss off, and instead "activate" in India, Vietnam, Taiwan ("...because fuck you Beijing, that's why"), etc... It's not like China has a monopoly on cheap labor (or even on untapped markets...)

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    6. Re:Listen up software companies by Knightman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You are aware that the US economy only functions because of China, right?

      China owns about $1.1 trillion of the US debt, Japan about as much too, in total about 11% of the total US national debt.

      A majority of the consumer goods imported to the US comes from China, an embargo will make a huge impact on the economy and getting into a pissing contest with China will mostly hurt the US badly.

      --
      --- Reality doesn't care about your opinions, it happens anyway and if you are in the way you'll get squished.
  2. Hong Kong: part of China by XXongo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Huh... Last time I checked, Hong Kong was a limited democracy form of government and not part of mainland China.

    Right on the first part (with the "limited" the key word here), but it's been part of mainland China since 1997.
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40426827

  3. Read between the lines. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Chinese authorities say this is to protect citizens by searching the source code of foreign companies for secret mechanisms that collect data on Chinese users and send it to foreign servers.

    What they really want is for the mechanisms to be on Chinese servers so that they can have access to all your information on their own citizens, lest one of them have some wrongthink.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.