14 July 2011

The other side of outsourcing

Sean Linnane aka Stormbringer reports:

Last year, the U.S. Navy bought 59,000 microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders and all of them turned out to be counterfeits from China.

Wired reports the chips weren't only low-quality fakes, they had been made with a "back-door" and could have been remotely shut down at any time.
And how about the regular, quite mundane stuff in your house, like your phones, your TV set, your computers?

What if...

8 comments:

Pisa said...

Good bye chinese food. Say NO to remotely controlled noodles and eggrolls!

Couldn't believe it at first, then I found something on Wired (went there because I couldn't find the story on Stormbringer) that made me change my mind:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/chipped-detainees-iran-mega-missiles-and-more-in-latest-wikileaks/

What can I say? Big dictators think alike...

I'm off to take some krav maga lessons. You know, just in case the electronic equipment in my house decides the time has come for Chinese Spring :)

jams o donnell said...

Ah governments go beyond the gravy train, they are gravy boats - much slower and with far more opportunity to dip into!

Dick Stanley said...

Amazing, though I should not be surprised. The defense budget has been bloated (and top heavy with worthless generals) for many, many moons.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

The best defense will be to by chopsticks then.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That wouldn't be gravy barges then?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

What you are hinting at is that we have to start with the generals, then.

Garnel Ironheart said...

> <span> they had been made with a "back-door" and could have been remotely shut down at any time.</span>

That's exactly how the Cylons defeated the 12 Colonies at the start of Battlestar Galactica!

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Thought so. They will, at that.