US Embeds Trackers in AI Chip Shipments To Catch Diversions To China (reuters.com) 44
An anonymous reader shares a report: U.S. authorities have secretly placed location tracking devices in targeted shipments of advanced chips they see as being at high risk of illegal diversion to China, according to two people with direct knowledge of the previously unreported law enforcement tactic. The measures aim to detect AI chips being diverted to destinations which are under U.S. export restrictions, and apply only to select shipments under investigation, the people said.
They show the lengths to which the U.S. has gone to enforce its chip export restrictions on China, even as the Trump administration has sought to relax some curbs on Chinese access to advanced American semiconductors. The trackers can help build cases against people and companies who profit from violating U.S. export controls, said the people who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
They show the lengths to which the U.S. has gone to enforce its chip export restrictions on China, even as the Trump administration has sought to relax some curbs on Chinese access to advanced American semiconductors. The trackers can help build cases against people and companies who profit from violating U.S. export controls, said the people who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
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Read it. How does that change the GP's comment? Care to point out what it is you're implying?
Re:Easy countermeasure (Score:4, Interesting)
Troll shit.
People who have points will provide context.
That said, i wonder if this is related to this, a movie Gamers Nexus is working on (intro video below), on illegal AI chips and who knows what and who is involved. They have also been trying to get our government on the record, so I wonder if this report is a response of sorts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltgyS8oJC8g [youtube.com]
With that said, we all know those with power, gain in wealth. Meaning, if someone knows about shipments being tagged, they have information to sell. Since corruption is the name of the game of our new government, Im sure there will be problems. Also, Im looking forward to GNs movie they are releasing in 2 days based on this whole thing.
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Yeah. I don't expect much, if anything, back from sabbede, but I was pretty curious if there was any point to that. Ex. Are they implying that foil wouldn't block these trackers? Or that the trackers are meant to catch the middlemen that disable them, and that those middlemen are too dumb to notice?
With that said, we all know those with power, gain in wealth. Meaning, if someone knows about shipments being tagged, they have information to sell. Since corruption is the name of the game of our new government, Im sure there will be problems. Also, Im looking forward to GNs movie they are releasing in 2 days based on this whole thing.
Well said.
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Is that satisfactory? What if at the outset I had just said, "RTFA"? Because it is at the end of the article that there is relevant information, from one of the smugglers.
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SOMETHING ELSE!
Is that satisfactory? What if at the outset I had just said, "RTFA"? Because it is at the end of the article that there is relevant information, from one of the smugglers.
[Narrators voice over] There wasn't any relevant information at the end of the article.
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Thank you for following up with what it is you were implying.
From that, what can we safely infer about the tracking devices and how they might be foiled (yeah, pun intended)? For one, that it isn't as simple as some foil and tape.
No, we can NOT infer that. And that's why you should include the bit your talking about instead of just saying RTFA, because TFA doesn't directly address that issue at all. The only thing it does is confirm that someone was watching out for trackers that may have been added in transit.
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The person you responded to is probably just another moron that thinks US might and technology is magic and not subject to the laws of Physics. There are a lot of those idiots around. They also think the NSA can break into any computer (they cannot) and the US military can kill anybody they like within short notice (in reality, they cannot even find people) and other mindless drivel that fuels their superiority delusion.
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You need power to get though foil. Even foil far too thin to completely block the signals would lead to the batteries draining fast.
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To save you a minute, they don't scan, they don't foil, they “look for it carefully".
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Sounds more to me they are just as clueless as you are about the technology.
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One cheap layer of aluminum foil. But the respective US authorities are stupid when it comes to supply-chain security. They are doing a lot more damage than good.
Wow... things must be getting slow at the wumao shop if your paymaster green-lit this gem — “foil beats federal export-control tradecraft” is some straight-to-video spy-movie nonsense. That's like believing a tinfoil hat will stop a JDAM.
The idea that a layer of Reynolds Wrap turns a live export-control investigation into a Scooby-Doo caper belongs in a bad spy movie, not a grown-up conversation about supply-chain interdiction. These trackers aren’t tossed in like Cracker Jack prizes
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Bla, bla, bla. Where did you get this collection of drivel?
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More to the point, they think the American people are dumb with a short attention span. They aren't wrong.
The announcement was just to catch a news headline. They are generating them as fast as their little brains can think of them to knock Epstein off the news feeds.
Re:They really do think (Score:4)
Such as the FBI redacting Trump's name from the Epstein list [newrepublic.com]? The list he has repeatedly said he will fully release?
Why must the victims of Epstein have to go to Congress to tell their stories [yahoo.com]? Why weren't they interviewed like Maxwell was?
Waste of time, let the IRS do it (Score:2)
It's not a national security issue in regards to the chips or we wouldn't have seen a deal with Nvidia so this is just to make sure the government gets it's vig (cool cool cool that the feds are basically loan sharks that will bust thumbs for their money)
Since this tracking must be about revenue collection let the revenue collection service handle it.
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It's not a national security issue in regards to the chips or we wouldn't have seen a deal with Nvidia
Alternately, it is a national security issue, but Cheeto Benito DGAF about national security.
I don't have a strong opinion about whether or not it is, and in fact suspect it ain't, but...
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We wouldn't have thought the government would be able to put a price tag on national security but here we are. Apparently its 15%, what a bargain!
So ... (Score:2)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Secretly?? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Take a look at who’s running these departments.
Why wasn't a backdoor installed? (Score:1)
If you assume these AI servers contain integrated WIFI chips, then the question is why a backdoor wasn't installed?
This likely could be only a few lines of code. Also, the transmitted signal doesn't necessarily have to connect to the Internet. It could either send an encrypted packets of message identifying itself or, also, the message could simply state what ports are open and sysadmin credentials. This, then, could be intercepted with a packet sniffer. In any case, there are many other ways a backdoor cou
Guess it (Score:2)
isn't secret anymore, so what's the point?
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Given that Trump has just removed the export restrictions (pay to play - NVidia allowed to export to China as long as they give 15% of revenues to US government !!!), the story is irrelevant.
China had also been using other workarounds, in addition to using less powerful NVidia chips (just need more of them, so not much of a restriction), as well as domestically produced ones fro Huawei. One workaround (scam) has been to have the chips shipped to different country, maybe even installed in a datacenter there,
SECRET - no (Score:1)
It's not a secret, because it isn't true. The US Government wants to plant this false-flag as a deterrent. There are literally MILLIONS of chips send in HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of packages, and they CAN'T BE TRACKED.
I know you're thinking "Apple Tag". That tech needs a receiver, a local transmitter, and software. While you'll find that in any airport in the US, you won't find that on harbor ports, freight or container ships, and offloading terminals. In China. LOL.
This is just something put out "under t
not so secret now? (Score:2)
"U.S. authorities have secretly..."
So... nobody in China reads Slashdot?
Re: not so secret now? (Score:2)
I'm in China reading slashdot. No, it's not blocked. Nobody in China cares about slashdot (anymore). I'm not sure anyone cares about any western sites wrt censorship any more - the GFW seems to be more about enforcement of digital sovereignty and associated laws, than it is about censorship - it used to be the other way around, imo.
Smuggling Supply Chain (Score:3)
Putting trackers into shipping containers containing "high value targets" will potentially those lazy smugglers. The real serious ones probably have the entire vertical line mapped out and bribed out so that they can ensure their shipments are not tampered with.
There is no such thing as problem that money can't solve. You just don't have enough money.
In the case with these smugglers, there's always money and they solve their problems with money.
Just like the story with Frank Lucas.
It'll be interesting to see the video that Gamers Nexus will be releasing in a few days that may have some related content about this.
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Most smugglers, and criminals in general, *are* lazy. They have an overwhelming and unwarranted belief that they will never get caught.
Faraday Cages for Everyone (Score:1)
Pointless (Score:2)
It'll only be a small hurdle and it's one that China needs to jump anyway, so this just encourages them to jump it sooner, and accelerates the fall of the USA.
Well done USA. You did well for a short while on the back of WW2, but your time is up now, so you had better get used to not being the top dog any more...best to stop fighting it, and roll with the changes to lessen the impact.