The New Red Scare: US Government Fear of Chinese Espionage

It seems that the US Government is renewing the Red Scare now that the unseen, invisible specter of Terrorism is no longer fueling wide-spread fears.

Even as we continue to develop further peace with the Chinese, apparently our Government is also becoming more suspicious of them and asking Civilians doing business with the Chinese or visiting China to do the same.

Safety First for IT Executives

Senior executives in US IT companies have been advised by the US Government to follow extremely strict policies for visits to China which extend far beyond standard software protection.

The policies encourage them to leave their standard IT equipment at home and to buy separate gear only for use in China.

Yes, the U.S. Government (or at least an unnamed Agency) is advising that any civilian American Staff take "throw-away" gear when they visit China, including cellphones, and that they dispose of it before returning to the United States!

Bregman said the US was also concerned about its companies employing Chinese coders, particularly in security. He said the "software supply concern" was due to fears that Chinese developers would insert malicious code into software sold to American companies or the US government.

"If you're a big company doing development in China the US government asks, ‘Why should we trust you? We won't buy from you.'"

Basically, the United States Government has grown so fearful and distrustful of the Chinese that anything that involves a Chinese Developer won't be purchased by the US Government. Why then do they use Microsoft, Oracle, and other products that are developed in cooperation with the Chinese?

I understand that Industrial Espionage costs the United States Economy a lot every year. Most of the Industrial Espionage that happens in the I.T. Sector though are between Rival Domestic Companies, not between Rival Nationalist Companies.

However, ever since the DoD discovered back-doors installed by the Chinese manufacturers of several Server Components, it seems that the Government is over-reacting and taking things to the extreme.

If this is how we treat our friends, no wonder the rest of the world doesn't trust us either!

Your signature says it all. Yes, we doubt the sincerity of our friends, the
Chinese. Probably because we've learned the hard way. And probably
because, given the chance, . . . we'd do something similar.

Never take people for granted . . especially your "friends".

Originally posted by SIEGE
Your signature says it all. Yes, we doubt the sincerity of our friends, the
Chinese. Probably because we've learned the hard way. And probably
because, given the chance, . . . we'd do something similar.

Never take people for granted . . especially your "friends".

"Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer." I never turn down an opportunity to bring up quotes falsely attributed to the Chinese Strategist and Tactician Sun Tzu.

However, it does seem like someone in Government may have read The Art of War by Sun Tzu one too many times for their paranoia to handle.

Besides, why would the Chinese have to steal anything from us anymore. They learned during the Clinton and Bush eras that they could just buy anything from us. Now that our economy is so bad, it would be like picking up something on Clearance! Espionage is too costly and makes for bad bed-fellows. Thrift Shopping, however, makes a lot more sense for the Chinese to do.

Canada and the U.S are the only countries who have 256bit encryption...

China? Goodluck.

Originally posted by CanadianDream420
Canada and the U.S are the only countries who have 256bit encryption...

China? Goodluck.

256bit RSA Encryption isn't going to keep a 10 year old old, especially if they have access to the built-in backdoor. 256bit AES Encryption might keep them out for a while, depending on what kind of horsepower they have to brute force it.

I personally wouldn't trust anything less than IDEA Encryption, which being developed Internationally, isn't restricted from Export to China. IDEA NXT is even better, but requires obtaining a license from the patent holder. Although Blowfish, Twofish, Threefish are all better alternatives. All of these support 256it Encryption using much stronger Algorithms, and are available Internationally.

Red scare?

No.

Here is one of the few areas I agree with this administration. It's a smart move. China is up and coming why make things easy for them. We are already giving away the store with the Obama administration agreeing to allow higher technology to be traded with China.

The United States to Allow More Hi-Tech Exports to China

Jul. 31 - The United States will soon allow more high-tech exports to China as part of the issues agreed upon during the recently concluded China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue this week.

“The U.S. pledged to facilitate exports of high-technology products from the U.S. to China,” Vice-Premier Wang Qishan told China Daily adding that the dialogue was a “full success.”

There's going to be some disappointed Chinese out there! They
got used to the Clintons giving them all the hitech they wanted and
now they have to steal it? Is that even news? I thought between
Israel and China they were the 2 most insidious countries for
stealing classified information. They certainly don't abide by any
laws governing intellectual properties or copyrights. Business as
usual I would say.