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This is a sub-selection from Frightening

battleop
join:2005-09-28
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Re: Frightening

I was told by someone at the CTIA expo that if you wanted to provide service to Federal Agencies it was suggested that you steer clear of companies that may be influenced by foreign governments such as Huawei.
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
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Chubbysumo

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said by battleop:

I was told by someone at the CTIA expo that if you wanted to provide service to Federal Agencies it was suggested that you steer clear of companies that may be influenced by foreign governments such as Huawei.

This is quite literally the definition of fear mongering, and probably has its roots in AT&T and VZW. Why would they(the chinese) want to spy on a majority of the USA customers? Sure, there are a few targets of interest, but this "committee" would also have to extend this suggestion to mexican telecos and canadian telecos as well(rodgers is in the USA, as well as Tracphone/straightalk/net10 all being owned and operated out of mexico by Carlos Slim). Seriously, there is no more risk here than anywhere else, and this is just like what was done in the McCarthy days with communism. Its all just irrational fear of the unknown/don't personally likes, and they are trying to get the masses to follow the same thing. I say bullshit, since its the same risk of a producer of the equipment that US telecos use right now is mostly in china, if the chinese wanted to spy, they would already be doing it, since 99% of tech related stuff in the USA is MADE IN CHINA!!

battleop
join:2005-09-28
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battleop

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"there are a few targets of interest,"

That's exactly it. If you have ever read about or watched some of the things the US did to the Russians during the cold war you would understand why they are cautious.

The Chinese government doesn't care about the average citizen but there is quite a reward in being able to sniff traffic that may contain data going to and from Obama's special Blackberry.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

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said by Chubbysumo:

Why would they(the chinese) want to spy on a majority of the USA customers?

Really? The Chinese aren't hiding their intentions with openly going after intellectual property and various technologies that will further their strategic progress. The Chinese are saving billions of dollars and several years in R&D. The more sensors the government has for gathering this information, the better.
said by Chubbysumo:

but this "committee" would also have to extend this suggestion to mexican telecos and canadian telecos as well(rodgers is in the USA, as well as Tracphone/straightalk/net10 all being owned and operated out of mexico by Carlos Slim).

Do they manufacture the equipment?
said by Chubbysumo:

if the chinese wanted to spy, they would already be doing it, since 99% of tech related stuff in the USA is MADE IN CHINA!!

Now you're catching on Our reliance on foreign designed/manufactured technology is becoming a risk to our national security. This will lead to more expensive goods as our owners/managers of critical infrastructure begin to be required to start leveraging trusted sources for hardware/software.
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
Ubee E31U2V1
(Software) pfSense
Netgear WNR3500L

Chubbysumo

Member

said by openbox9:

said by Chubbysumo:

Why would they(the chinese) want to spy on a majority of the USA customers?

Really? The Chinese aren't hiding their intentions with openly going after intellectual property and various technologies that will further their strategic progress. The Chinese are saving billions of dollars and several years in R&D. The more sensors the government has for gathering this information, the better.
said by Chubbysumo:

but this "committee" would also have to extend this suggestion to mexican telecos and canadian telecos as well(rodgers is in the USA, as well as Tracphone/straightalk/net10 all being owned and operated out of mexico by Carlos Slim).

Do they manufacture the equipment?
said by Chubbysumo:

if the chinese wanted to spy, they would already be doing it, since 99% of tech related stuff in the USA is MADE IN CHINA!!

Now you're catching on Our reliance on foreign designed/manufactured technology is becoming a risk to our national security. This will lead to more expensive goods as our owners/managers of critical infrastructure begin to be required to start leveraging trusted sources for hardware/software.

Again, its 99% hype and maybe 1% truth. I would more worry about questionable smaller makers rather than larger ones, since the larger ones have to withstand more scrutiny, but, since most of the stuff we use here is made overseas, this report is nothing but fearmongering. I wonder what other company is trying to crush their competition?
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

said by Chubbysumo:

Again, its 99% hype and maybe 1% truth.

I'm guessing it's more than 1% truth.
said by Chubbysumo:

I would more worry about questionable smaller makers rather than larger ones

I'm sure the IC is worried about all of them.
said by Chubbysumo:

but, since most of the stuff we use here is made overseas, this report is nothing but fearmongering.

Or the beginning of a wake up call.

KodiacZiller
Premium Member
join:2008-09-04
73368

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said by battleop:

"there are a few targets of interest,"

That's exactly it. If you have ever read about or watched some of the things the US did to the Russians during the cold war you would understand why they are cautious.

The Chinese government doesn't care about the average citizen but there is quite a reward in being able to sniff traffic that may contain data going to and from Obama's special Blackberry.

Not likely. For one, Obama's blackberry is encrypted with Top Secret Type I ciphers. Second, most of our really sensitive systems are not going to be run on such commodity hardware (or even on the public Internet at all). NSA has its own chip manufacturing plant for this reason. I am not worried about really sensitive systems inside the government -- they are going to either manufacture it themselves or strictly oversee contractors who do.

This is more about the Chinese ripping off the Apple's and Microsoft's and Boeing's of the world. Corporate espionage is what they are concerned about. They also worry, of course, about public networks (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) But really, the horse is already out of the barn -- the Chinese have been ripping off American corporate secrets for decades and they haven't needed subverted hardware to do it. They even stole the Stealth fighter from us, FFS.

What's worse is there are ZERO American companies that can make LTE gear. 60 minutes ran a story about this the other day. In their report, they interviewed one guy from Kansas who wanted to expand his town's 4G LTE network. He looked at all American companies (including Cisco). He found out that NONE of them made the 4G gear so he was forced to go to Huawei. A while later he got a visit from guys in dark suits (he wouldn't identity the agency they were with). He said "they were concerned about Huawei." He was pretty ticked off about the whole matter and wouldn't talk in any detail about it.

According to the 60 minutes episode, there are only 3 companies worldwide who make all the gear needed for a 4G network -- Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Huawei. Swedish, French, Chinese.

That's really the problem. American manufacturing, while once the best in the world (especially at networking, routers, telco gear, etc.) is now at the bottom of the barrel. America invented packet switching and the Internet and now we can't even manufacture any of it. Sad. And these small towns looking to upgrade 4G are going to use Huawei over Ericsson or Alcatel because they are undoubtedly cheaper.

But the irony in all of this, as has been noted, is how the government is worried so much about backdoors. They know that they themselves are the best in the world at backdooring systems (NSA is notorious for it). So I guess it's kind of like a bank robber giving a course on bank security.

I don't doubt Huawei is spying, but it's just ironic coming from the House Intelligence Committee (who oversees NSA's spying program).
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
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join:2009-06-17

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So maybe the government says to Cisco, Juniper, HP, etc.... that they WILL manufacture at home in giant shared factories - in order to on-shore manufacturing and reap some economies of scale.

But then those companies will say...."The US market is tiny compared to the rest of the world market, and we can still manufacture cheaper in China so that's where we're going to make our stuff for ALL markets."
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Trusted foundries exist and they don't necessarily need to be in the US. The access to them needs to be broadened to allow access by our critical infrastructure partners (i.e., some of the manufacturers that you mentioned). Yes, it costs money.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
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"Not likely."

I agree it's not likely but it's not impossible. As long as there are humans and greed in the process it's always a possibility even it it's an extremely remote possibility.
scross
join:2002-09-13
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scross

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I might characterize this as "Better than nothing, but a day late and a dollar short!" The Chinese have long maintained an active but low-key cyber-warfare program against the US (along with an active but low-key spying program utilizing Chinese nationals within US borders), where if nothing else they are conducting industrial espionage - or at least attempting to. This was one of the main topics at an FBI meeting I attended a few months back, where they made it clear that they are finally starting to take this stuff very seriously. I haven't read this report yet, but I'm curious as to what details it gives.
« I call bullsh*t
This is a sub-selection from Frightening