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by tomp 4416 days ago
Translation of the NSA statement:

We don't deny altering hardware. In fact, if we (likely) install backdoors into hardware used by foreign intelligence targets; but don't worry, we're not interested in the casual user. As the US Government relies on commercial hardware, we make sure that only the US Government can access the backdoors. We're angry that this was made public, and we can't prove that it jeopardizes human lives.
1 comments
sentenza 4416 days ago
It also sheds some new light on the "China-hardware is bad for you" media campaign that was run right before Snowden happened. It seems that not buying American means keeping the American intelligence community out of ones network.

But I guess you _actually_ can't trust the Chinese either. That doesn't leave many hardware vendors for heavy-duty network equipment to choose from.

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pmorici 4416 days ago
"It seems that not buying American means keeping the American intelligence community out of ones network."

Will barricading your front door keep thieves from coming in the side window?

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gaius 4416 days ago
Sure you can. The Chinese are 10,000 miles away and don't really care about Western domestic politics. It might be different if you are an arms or pharma company, but for the average citizen concerned about civil liberties, you really can trust the Chinese in this case.
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adventured 4416 days ago
China cares a great deal about Western politics. Their two biggest markets are the United States and Europe.

Check out the Chinese support of Hillary and Bill Clinton.

There has been a ton of illegal Chinese money all over US elections for decades. Read up on the scandals from the 1990's revolving around this, or the Chinese money that flowed to Hillary in 2008.

Obama.com is (was?) even owned by a money bundler out of China.

Or check out the Chinese hackers that targeted the Romney & Obama campaigns.

http://www.latimes.com/la-na-donors19oct19-story.html#page=1

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/04/04/china.clin...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/08/the-illegal...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/10/hillary-clin...

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4264134/ns/nbc_nightly_news_with_b...

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/06/18807056-...

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/10/08/exposin...

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perlpimp 4416 days ago
It is not about you and the government, but rather about hackers that found out and are digging for these government approved exploits/backdoors/what-have-you.If they do alter piece by piece different bit of hardware then O.K. but somehow I doubt thats how this works, would be too work intensive and sloppy - error prone.
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