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US Tech Firms Fear China Could Be Spying On Them Using Power Cords, Report Says (cnbc.com)
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.
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If you're worried about power plugs, you should be worried about anything that plugs in, or even is battery powered. An office heater or fan, desk lamp, etc can spy on your power signature almost as well as the extension cord used to power things. A battery powered headset can spy wirelessly too. You could even take it a step further and suspect shoes made in China, they could contain kinetically charged batteries with spying equipment.
So, if you want to be paranoid, you have to ban everything made in China.
...allowed to spy on Americans. I'm sure that is written in the Constitution somewhere.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Next thing you know, you'll tell me that power lines can be used to provide high speed internet to devices, and it's relatively simple to use any USB device to do things, just like your keyboards as well as your microphones and cameras, even when you think they're off.
oh
wait
it is
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Apparently, these US companies have nobody left that understands technology. Such an attack would be both ineffective and far, far more expensive than other possibilities. Requires some minimal actual knowledge of IT security to see that though, but all these people seem to have is irrational fear.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
the bump could be a ferrite. it could be a tap. easy enough to cut off the insulation on X number of cords and see what's there. or soak them in methylene chloride for a while.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
So, if you want to be paranoid, you have to ban everything made in China.
Why China? China is only suspected of using consumer electronics to spy whereas we actually know for certain that the US government has been using consumer electronics to spy on people.
This is the proper level of "paranoia" required to keep data secret! However, US tech companies should also be having the realization that they need to stop selling/enabling insecure products because the buyers may end up being their workers. Hack a worker's wireless printer via internet (easy), move laterally via bluetooth to their smartphone (outdated and insecure) and you have a remote surveillance device in your "secure" workplace. Each step of insecurity brought to you by good ol' US tech companies.
There is so much insecurable crap in computers and products that it's going to be a monumental task to actually secure companies. Sure hope PS/2 keyboards and mice are coming back into fashion because USB is a security nightmare.
You reap what you sow, US tech companies!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Cause: a result of an underlying belief that other people are hostile [and long time spying on others] in combination with a lack in self-awareness
China is the number one thief of IP while the US is the number two thief of IP. The later fact does not negate the former.
It's not wrong for them to be concerned. Sure, it's hypocritical but it's not wrong.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
... from the same "reliable" sources that still owe us a presentation of the spy-chips on the SuperMicro boards?
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.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Is there really that much difference between China and Taiwan if China were going to have a backdoor installed into a product? (I'm not trying to start a debate on whether Taiwan is or isn't a part of China. Just pointing out that China's influence isn't that much reduced there.) If you were wanting to be protect yourself from Chinese backdoors then it would be better to choose one of the many other low cost production countries. Especially for something as simple as a power cord.
However, this sounds like another BS don't trust the Chinese stories put out by the US government in order to further weaken trade between the two countries. The problem is these don't trust the Chinese government and businesses start becoming shortened to don't trust Chinese and it becomes ingrained into the nation if done for long enough.
Despite your continuing genocide and oppression the world over not everyone is out to get you. So calm down and take some of what ever your pharmaceutical industry is pushing the most currently.