[HN Gopher] China's Salt Typhoon recorded top American officials...
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       China's Salt Typhoon recorded top American officials' calls, says
       White House
        
       Author : rntn
       Score  : 49 points
       Date   : 2024-12-09 21:08 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theregister.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theregister.com)
        
       | gaoshan wrote:
       | Well, this is what spies do, right? We do it, they do it. We all
       | use the latest technology of the day to do it and we all try to
       | prevent the other.
       | 
       | That the outcome of such efforts is published by the government
       | impacted is interesting but that begs the question of what the
       | actual goal of releasing the information is, right? That's the
       | interesting bit here.
        
         | hiatus wrote:
         | Letting the adversary know that you know can be a useful move.
        
         | stickfigure wrote:
         | It should be the final nail in the coffin of Huawei's
         | international telecoms business.
        
           | Shank wrote:
           | I personally don't see how these actions are logically
           | correlated, and moreover, I don't think it does anything to
           | harden US critical infrastructure to beat the Huawei dead
           | horse again.
           | 
           | The primary concern should be the fact that we've built
           | infrastructure that is easily eavesdropped on by foreign
           | adversaries. Heck, assuming these users weren't on DSN, we
           | already have a solution: DSN. We also have mobile solutions,
           | like asking politically vulnerable people to use Signal, or
           | developing secure technology for these users to use.
        
             | lazyeye wrote:
             | I find your comment ridiculous. Yes there are other risks
             | too but the idea that there is no risk to allowing your
             | primary geo-strategic competitor to embed their own
             | hardware in your telecommunications chain is just plain
             | silly.
             | 
             | So silly in fact, I'm wondering what your motivations are.
        
           | piva00 wrote:
           | A bit one-sided since this event also shows how filled with
           | backdoors American telecom equipment is, no? To the point an
           | adversary used them, other nations should be afraid of their
           | American equipment also getting compromised.
        
       | peepeepoopoo93 wrote:
       | What do you want to bet that this was made possible by the CCP
       | hardware backdoors that SuperMicro has been bugging their
       | motherboards with?
       | 
       | https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/12/supermicro_bloomberg_...
        
         | hiatus wrote:
         | This was never proven if memory serves me.
        
           | peepeepoopoo93 wrote:
           | Look at how many allegations are swirling around that
           | company. They're accused of violating sanctions on GPUs to
           | Russia and China too. Seems like a pattern IMO.
        
       | ydnaclementine wrote:
       | When does known espionage and hacking of nation's telecoms become
       | an act of war?
        
         | mastax wrote:
         | When the state wants to go to war already and is looking for a
         | justification.
        
         | readyplayernull wrote:
         | Welp, not when the oligarch ruling classes on each side
         | estimate they won't earn more from war than keeping the peace
         | and continue being fed by their own people.
        
       | uticus wrote:
       | > Salt Typhoon also compromised wiretapping systems used by law
       | enforcement - although that wasn't the focus of the spying
       | intrusions...
       | 
       | Not too hard to pick up on the Vulture's underlining here: when
       | the need for sovereign surveillance interferes with the need for
       | foreign security
        
       | Zak wrote:
       | I'm disappointed, but not really surprised that top American
       | officials are having important conversations over unencrypted
       | channels.
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-09 23:01 UTC)