Slashdot Mirror
FCC Chief Cites Concerns on Spy Threats From Chinese Telecoms Firms (reuters.com)
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, in a letter sent to lawmakers earlier this week (but released just now), said he shares the concerns of U.S. lawmakers about espionage threats from Chinese smartphone maker Huawei and plans to take "proactive steps" to ensure the integrity of the U.S. communications supply chain. From a report: Pai said he shares concerns over the "security threat that Huawei and other Chinese technology companies pose to our communications networks." Pai said he intends to take action in the "near future," but offered no specifics. Pai's letter follows the introduction of legislation by Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio in February that would block the U.S. government from buying or leasing telecoms equipment from Huawei, the world's third largest smartphone maker, or Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp, citing concerns the companies would use their access to spy on U.S. officials.
But if he worked for the Chinese, he would bend over and take it like an obedient lawyer ðY.
Clearly he's going to to introduce some kind of legislation where all telecom equipment is vetted through Verizon.
Is there any proof to go along with this claim, or is it just their gut feeling?
I am considered that back-doors (used for espionage or any kind of attack) are as viruses.
I as consumer will be happy if the computer that i had bought is free of back-doors or of any privilege escalation
I have many obsolete computers, some of them are not working due to failed electrolitic capacitors. I think that these electrolitic capacitors should be replaced by another better capacitors for longer life.
"Chinese military-grade Black Ice, baby."
it is almost like best buy saw this coming...
Nobody likes having a copper factory in their neighborhood, there's risks of lead and gold being leaked in the the environment. Everybody loves their phones, but the makers have to make them somewhere else.
Silicon Valley's greatest developments were the hubs, switches and routers... but they never converted into smartphones, those factories are now all overseas.
US domestic TLA agencies
US ISP/Wireless "services"
China
North Korea
Russia
The last 3 are interchangeable
As always, there is no proof, only accusations. Given the current times and the massive trade tariffs, it's pretty clear that this is just another step in the current market protectionism effort America is pushing.
Also, there has only ever been one country which has been definitely proven to turn the electronics products and services into spying tools -- America.
So we offshored all our application development to India, all our electronics manufacturing to China, all our security development to eastern Europe and Russia, and now we are worried about our gadgets being compromised?
Color me surprised.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
The bribe from China to Ajit Pai must not have appeared in his numbered offshore account yet, otherwise he wouldn't be 'reporting' this at all.
No worries, as soon as the funds show up he'll retract the whole thing, say it was a 'false alarm'.
So, if you put your tin foil hat on and decide to eliminate influence from China in your cell phone's supply chain,
where do you start?
Apple uses Foxcon in C.
TSMC is in Taiwan, C
So, what is this current drama about?
How is he (or his successor) going to feel when they see this same language in Chinese, or other language, as an assault on the entry of U.S. designed products into other markets?
The U.S., under more rational administrations in the past, has decried "non-tariff barriers to entry" against U.S. products and services, such as the language now being used by the FCC.
What's good for the goose is mighty damn fine for the gander -- and I hope you like the taste of it, because it's going to be rammed down our throats (or into other orifices) by other nations barring U.S. products from their markets.
So, you need:
1. No use of Chinese (or perhaps East Asian) fabs for any of your silicon.
2. No involvement of any companies with any Chinese (opEA) ownership in the manufacturing processes.
3. No involvement of any Chinese (opEA) nationals in any of the hardware or software design processes.
In fact, how about "only security-cleared US nationals and wholly-US owned corporations wholly based in the US be permitted to be involved in telecoms kit, from raw material production to installation and configuration."
That might work, and would require major investment in the US, and loads of new jobs, too.
However,campaign contributions might be a little light for a while...
This sig left unintentionally blank.
Yes, Americans should only trust phones that are made in the USA.
China is a major problem on the world stage. It will become the biggest, eventually. The U.S. government is itself the biggest problem (e.g., Snowden leaks). That will eventually be eclipsed by China, which is on track to be the dominant superpower of the 21st century.
If Pai wants to protect American consumers, he should publicly embrace FOSS and strong encryption.
Mostly that has to do with MS Office which is used heavily in the business world, especially finance. Excel and PowerPoint are the lifeblood of the investment banking world.
This could change, but Linux still hasn't figured out a really excellent alternative to MS Office. Both OpenOffice and LibreOffice are too different from MS Office (especially Excel) to make adoption easy. If that problem can be solved, maybe we could see more business people migrate from Windows.
Half of Slashdot will now go out of their way to buy Huawei — just to spite Ajit Pai.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
1. Birth a startup up in SoMa to build a secure all-in-house hardware and software phone/tablet for the gov. Valley angels and unicorns rejoice. Pelosi gets pork.
2. Put the chip fab in Rochester, NY so Schumer gets pork.
3. Put assembly plant in Louisville so McConnell gets pork.
4. Market it as "made is USA". Trump gets ego gratification.
5. Profit!!!
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.