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US Tech Firms Fear China Could Be Spying On Them Using Power Cords, Report Says (cnbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the accessing-sensitive-data dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Fearing that China could be spying on them using power cords and plugs, several U.S. technology companies have asked their Taiwanese suppliers to shift production of some components out of the mainland, Nikkei Asian Review reported on Friday. The report cited unnamed executives from two Taiwanese companies: Lite-On Technology, a manufacturer of electronic parts, and Quanta Computer, a supplier of servers and data centers. Lite-On's clients include Dell EMC, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, while Quanta counts Google and Facebook among its customers, according to Nikkei. The executives told Nikkei that some of their American clients -- without specifying which companies -- asked them to move out of China partly because of cyberespionage and cybersecurity risks. The U.S. tech firms were worried that even mundane components such as power plugs could be tapped by Beijing to access sensitive data, according to the report. According to the report, Lite-On Technology is building a new factory in Taiwan to manufacture power components for servers due to China's cybersecurity concerns. Quanta has also shifted production out of mainland China to Taiwan due to similar concerns, as well as additional tariffs imposed by Washington as a result of the U.S.-China trade war.

4 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Valid fear. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    https://www.amazon.com/KJB-Security-C1184-Camera-covert/dp/B0054GQAJU

  2. Re:If you're going to be paranoid... by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Quite a few successful ops involved giving people fans and other devices. My fave involved a lava lamp, of all things.

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  3. Re:I'm not sure this should have leaked. by gweihir · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nobody is spying via hacked power cords. It does not make sense technologically. Like at all.

    Well, nobody is spying via hacked power cords alone. You could hide a MCU with wifi and a camera and/or mic in one easily enough,

    Actually, that would be pretty hard. The problem is ironically that you need power and even a small PSU needs a transformer of a size that is not easily hidden because you cannot use mains power directly. Also, the PSU will be less efficient because of it small size and hence heat up and that is noticeable. And said PSU will create interference. And it will be easy to find by measuring capacitance between wires. And some other potential problems I am currently to lazy to examine in detail. Placing something like that in an USB cord is relatively easy, but in a power cord it is not.

    No, sorry. The idea is a pure amateur-level fantasy. Any reasonably competent engineer will go for other options.

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  4. Re:If you're going to be paranoid... by Powercntrl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you're worried about power plugs, you should be worried about anything that plugs in, or even is battery powered.

    Pretty much anything you connect to your network could be used to hack into the other machines you have on that network. Even the WiFi plug I bought for my lamp has been nagging me to update the firmware it runs.

    On the other hand, those WiFi outlet switch thingies are just so damn convenient... Security was fun while it lasted.

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    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.