[HN Gopher] Did a Chinese hack kill Nortel? (2020)
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       Did a Chinese hack kill Nortel? (2020)
        
       Author : mepian
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2021-09-25 21:40 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bnnbloomberg.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bnnbloomberg.ca)
        
       | robbedpeter wrote:
       | Goddamn autoplay. People who embed or enable autoplay videos
       | should be impaled on stakes, eaten by ants, and burned alive.
       | Repeatedly.
        
         | heyitsguay wrote:
         | Would you have to catch all the ants and then burn them? Seems
         | like a lot of extra work.
        
       | farmerstan wrote:
       | I lost so much money when Nortel died. It was unimaginable at the
       | time. It's like Cisco going belly up overnight, it would be so
       | shocking no one would believe it.
        
       | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
       | Betteridge's law of headlines applies: No.
       | 
       | I mean, from the description in the article of _how_ the hack
       | occurred, and how management basically did nothing to respond,
       | makes it pretty clear that if weren 't a Chinese government hack,
       | it would have been something else. Nortel management appeared
       | very "asleep at the wheel" and it seems pretty apparent the
       | company was suffering from a significant cultural rot.
        
       | mmh0000 wrote:
       | Did an American hack kill a Netherlands tech company? [1]
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiNotar
        
         | garren wrote:
         | ...or a 21 year old Iranian student...or the Iranian
         | government? [1] The source you've provided isn't exactly clear
         | on that point.
         | 
         | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiNotar
        
       | DiogenesKynikos wrote:
       | No, the bursting of the tech bubble and financial scandals killed
       | Nortel.
       | 
       | Huawei wasn't even a major player outside of China back when
       | Nortel fell into trouble. From 2001-2004, Nortel's sales
       | collapsed, it began downsizing, and the share price plummeted. In
       | 2004, the SEC began investigating the company for financial fraud
       | (misstating earnings).[1] Huawei only began to expand its
       | overseas sales in 2003-2004.
       | 
       | The idea that hackers (whose identity isn't even known) brought
       | down Nortel is just _post facto_ rationalization of the
       | mismanagement of the company. When the article says the hack
       | began, in April 2004, Nortel 's stock price was already down by
       | over 90%, and the SEC was just announcing its investigation into
       | financial irregularities at the company.
       | 
       | 1. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nortel-timeline-sb-
       | idUKTR...
        
       | burnished wrote:
       | Note that on mobile at least the page autoplays a loud video ad
       | (1 of 2 for me before I bounced), which when you scroll down to
       | get away from it simply pops out and follows you.
       | 
       | Did not read the article as a result.
        
       | redis_mlc wrote:
       | It's an interesting history lesson, but the problem with Huawei
       | today is this:
       | 
       | They (and the CCP) will fund 100% of the rollout for a telecom to
       | use their 5G server equipment. For Western mfgs. to compete,
       | either Huawei has to be banned, or equivalent pricing and funding
       | has to be instantly available. Or no sale.
       | 
       | Nortel never had a chance to compete with that.
       | 
       | The US funds Boeing's overseas sales via the Export-Import Bank,
       | but that plan has to be extended to domestic and foreign 5G
       | sales.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export%E2%80%93Import_Bank_of_...
        
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       (page generated 2021-09-25 23:00 UTC)