US Warns Olympic Visitors of Chinese Cyber-Spying 231
An anonymous reader writes to tell us the US Government has issued a strong warning to travelers headed to the Beijing Olympics (PDF) with respect to electronic data. Part FUD, part awareness, the CBS article reads like 1984, urging travelers to treat all electronic devices (from fax to cellphone and back) as compromised, and proceeds to talk about China's aggressive cyber-espionage programs. "China is one of a number of countries pushing active cyber-espionage programs aimed primarily at cracking U.S. national security computers and stealing corporate trade secrets. Billions have already been lost. In addition, cyber-gangs and criminals, many based in Asia, have stolen bank accounts and credit card numbers from an untold number of Americans."
Re:In Soviet USA (Score:4, Interesting)
The "pot" here is not talking to the "kettle". It is talking to us — don't use fax or blackberry, if you don't want China to intercept the information.
In pot's defense, I may add, the thought of Chinese spying on my communications worries me far more.
Re:In Soviet USA (Score:3, Interesting)
I get this deja-vu feeling... Pure FUD. Just like they warned us about Iraq's WMDs and now China is supposed to be a huge cyberspy. Honeslty, I can't see why China would even care about the U.S. ecomony. I think they're doing quite well on their own xie-xie. If I was Chinese, I would probably be very affraid of those supposed-to-be athletes who might be in fact CIA spies.
Re:Untill your own computer is seized. (Score:5, Interesting)
Yep. After I got pulled aside at the Canadian border and given the third degree and finally let through after four hours, I was told by friends NEVER to tell the Canadian border guards you are a software engineer. That is a sure way to get pulled aside for further questioning. They don't want illegal foreign coders taking Canadian jobs or something.
Re:In Soviet USA (Score:5, Interesting)
export laws (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder if you can get into trouble for physically carrying encryption software across the US border like you can for "exporting" it by placing it on the internet.
Queue Admiral Ackbar,
It's a trap!
Re:In Soviet USA (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:In Soviet USA (Score:2, Interesting)
We are hypocrites (Score:4, Interesting)
Um, how is that different from here? And why shouldn't we be worried about that happening here? It's not like China has some special properties to make our devices surrender themselves only on their property and only for them. I'm worried because the government knows about this but is not stopping it on our own soil or issuing any such warnings on our own soil. It's very devious.
Re:In Soviet USA (Score:4, Interesting)
Trouble is the list of suspected terrorists is quite large [aclu.org], and includes such deadly threats as Nelson Mandela, Cat Stevens, and Ted Kennedy.
The point of the 4th amendent is not at all debatable. We know exactly why it is there: because the British authorities had had the right to search any property in search of smuggled goods, and the good citizens of America decided they didn't want their new masters to have the same rights.
What is debatable is it's relevance to electronic communications. The answer is of course none, because the internet was unimaginable when it was written, even by such a prolific thinker as Benjamin Franklin. What actually needs to happen is for America to realise that semantic obessioning over the constitution is a diversionary tactic by the backers of these types of bills, and that the real laws are passed long before the press have stopped bitching about what "Unreasonable" means.
pot gets racist with kettle (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:In Soviet USA (Score:3, Interesting)
What about between their server and the device (in China)? Is that leg just as encrypted — is the communication end-to-end, or is it sent clear-text over GSM, for the purposes of expediency?
Re:Pure FUD (Score:3, Interesting)
This should always be assumed, wherever you may be. Visiting an authoritarian government doesn't change that.
Ah, so what they say is true, then? This must be some new definition of the term "FUD" of which I was previously unaware.
There's lots of the usual Slashdot bitching, kvetching, and sarcastic remarks, but I can't really see what's wrong with pointing out to tourists that their communications might be at risk when traveling in a foreign country. They advised me to get inoculated against hepatitis A and B before I traveled to Southeast Asia, yet people contract both diseases every day right here in the good ol' USA. So was it government propaganda?
From the sound of it, the scenario they're imagining is some random dumb guy going to the Olympics. He is a high-level guy at some company -- which is why he has the money to go -- and he's so important that he keeps having to call/email/IM home to advise on this or that aspect of some contract his team is working on. Which happens to be a contract with the U.S. government.
Re:Do not let democracy slide... (Score:3, Interesting)
Those boring things like 'privacy', 'due process', 'habeas corpus', 'Separation of powers' etc. exist to make sure nobody can grab the power and install a dictatorship
s/exist/used to exist/ :-(