Doing business with china

[jrc]

Here is something I found on Current tv.

Seagate hard drives made in Thailand apparently come with preloaded trojans. An investigation of computers used by the Taiwanese government showed that the trojans upload files to Beijing web sites, causing speculation that the Chinese government is involved in a clandestine spy program.

I have nothing against the people of china it's just the way they do business. If US businesses operated the way they do in china they would all be shut down and owners in jail. Check out a few pages and some of the video's and I think you might look at china in a different way. I will be interested after this group buy from china to see what they think of what they got.

http://current.com/topics/32970114_china?&start=10&len=10

 

[Mudder]

All the reason why the first thing you should do when you get a hard drive is format it.

 

[thewishman]

There are truly dangers with integrating products from countries that have values so divergent from our own. What would the Chinese government say if hard drives they purchased from the USA were similarly infected? The Yahoo cooperation with Chinese investigators is scary enough.

Why would hard drives made in Thailand for a US company have Chinese trojans installed? Two quotes come to mind, "Trust nobody" and "Trust but verify."

Here is my first(read-knee jerk) reaction to the message:

Beware of comfort pens with hidden agendas. [)]

Credit card pens with stolen numbers. []

Secret compartment keychains with secrets secreted inside. []

Chris

 

[workinforwood]

I don't believe in the conspiracies. It may be true about the trojans in some cases, but is not likely a secret spy phenomenon. Probably they have them in their system and it gets out onto the new systems as a constant battle just like anyone else could have. Chinese business definitely needs improvement, no doubts there. But there is so many issues, as we want cheap goods, so they skimp to go cheap, sacrificing quality. Many of the chinese, japanese, taiwanese...these people do have a deep seed in quality and craftsmanship. Occasionally you see something like a dog food recall come through and the head of the company is so shamed he commits suicide. Another situation of trying to cut corners and a clash of cultural differences at the same time. It is normal practice to put rat poison in a field there, and here it is illegal. Do we not though also need to share the responsibilities of inspecting what we buy? Perhaps our own business leaders should be held equally responsible. Where is IBM to be sure there's no trojan in your new computer? Where is Matell corp or whoever to test for lead in their products? And shouldn't the food companies know that it is common practice for rat poison in chinese grain? I'm not pro anyone, don't get me wrong, I just think we are all to share the blame.

 

[penhead]

Here is what I read last week. (You click cancel to not install language formatter)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/11/11/2003387202

 

[GaryMGg]

Originally posted by workinforwood
...It may be true about the trojans in some cases, but is not likely a secret spy phenomenon. ...

Jeff, I've got to disagree with you on this.

As a Congressionally appointed commission wrote to Congress:
"Chinese espionage in the United States, which now comprises the single greatest threat to US technology, is straining the US counterintelligence establishment,"
-- United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
[:0]
IIRC, China is the leading source of convicted espionage cases this decade aimed at both our military and industrial economic bases.
[V]
I doubt there's a country in the world that doesn't spy on its adversaries and some of its allies.
As Sun-Tzu said, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

On the lighter side, the ink in my Chinese pens keeps translating whatever I write into Hànzi. []

 

[gerryr]

Anybody bother to dig a bit deeper into that? The article begins talking about Seagate drives and then switches to talking about Maxtor drives and later back to Seagate drives. Give me a break. Sounds like a really poorly done urban legend.

 

[Mudder]

Originally posted by gerryr
<br />Anybody bother to dig a bit deeper into that? The article begins talking about Seagate drives and then switches to talking about Maxtor drives and later back to Seagate drives. Give me a break. Sounds like a really poorly done urban legend.

Maxtor was bought by Seagate in late 2005 or early 2006.

 

[dfurlano]

They should do what the US government does and just get the major ISP's and phone services to allow them to tap into everything that is said and done.

 

[GaryMGg]

Gerry,
I agree with your sentiment wrt the link in the OP; kinda like our National Enquirer []

However: Seagate got Maxtor.
http://www.seagate.com/maxtor/
Google the topic; the Taipei Times article is succinct news. I think they broke it.
Note they reported the Chinese Gov't's involvement is speculatory.
This link is pretty good:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58819

And this one (one of many) makes interesting reading if this topic is of interest:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=CHINA

Cheers,
G