News Chinese security officials call for investigation of Intel CPUs for chip failures and security flaws, says chipmaker 'threatens national security

[Admin]

The Cyber Security Association of China called out Intel because its chips had several cybersecurity vulnerabilities and its products had a high failure rate. It further accused the company of enabling backdoors for digital espionage.

Chinese security officials call for investigation of Intel CPUs for chip failures and security flaws, says chipmaker 'threatens national security : Read more

 

[coolitic]

Step 1 of ideological subversion (Demoralization): Convince the citizens of your enemy that you are a better or at least equivalent alternative to their status quo.

In this case: China word-for-word reflecting accusations against it back at its accusers; a "No u".

 

[tennis2]

Perfect ruse. Get legal permission/access to "investigate" the bowels of Intel architecture IP so you can steal it all and make your own chips.

 

[dalek1234]

If an Intel CPU is compromised due to a security vulnerability, would that not be an "unintentional back-door"?

 

[dCasualGamer]

It's tit-for-tat move. If US applies some sanctions, China will reciprocate.

 

[rluker5]

Since they don't have a problem that isn't already fixed, maybe China gov wants loosened restrictions?

 

[-Fran-]

If an Intel CPU is compromised due to a security vulnerability, would that not be an "unintentional back-door"?

Nope. There must be intention behind a "back door" to exist in the first place. Saying or adding "unintentional" makes it a logical fallacy, I'd say.

In other words: doors don't materialize out of nowhere or erode themselves into structures and must be intentionally placed as they are constructs. A hole is debatable, but (back) doors aren't.

--

As for the news. Well, not much to say, really. The "tit-for-tat" that was mentioned before, for sure.

Regards.

 

[AkroZ]

For the back door they can do reference to Intel Management Engine which is a mini OS encrypted on the CPU and all communications pass by it. We don't known exactly what it do but a reseacher found a bit in the firmware used by the NSA to disable it to have a secure environment.
Note that AMD has also implemented a similar system.

But basically this is political:
USA: we will not sell our product for national security concern.
China: we will not buy your product for national security concern.

If they ban Intel, AMD should remain the time they ramp up their local CPU production.

 

[watzupken]

It's tit-for-tat move. If US applies some sanctions, China will reciprocate.

This is precisely the point. So if China sanctions Intel, I am expecting Intel to lose significant revenue, which in turn means more employees will lose their job so that they can keep their cost down. The impact will always be felt by the citizens.

 

[jp7189]

It's tit-for-tat move. If US applies some sanctions, China will reciprocate.

Wait isn't that going in the same direction? US blocks GPUs going to China and then China blocks CPUs going to.. China..? Tit for tat implies China blocking a critical resource going to the US.. which they are doing with other things, but this doesn't seem to be that.

 

[-Fran-]

Wait isn't that going in the same direction? US blocks GPUs going to China and then China blocks CPUs going to.. China..? Tit for tat implies China blocking a critical resource going to the US.. which they are doing with other things, but this doesn't seem to be that.

The point is China is still a huge market big US Corps need and have in their plans for profit. If China wants to put the US Corps (Shareholders and money holders) against the US Govt (and their people), this is the way to do it.

That's also why the USA has been keen on re-growing some of their in-house building capacity and capabilities.

Regards.

 

[hart832]

The Chinese are switching to local CPUs for national security & ditching Intel & AMD for sure. Alternatives are already available although the single CPU is slower then both Intel & AMD but the speed can be boosted by stringing multiple chips together. Hacking will be tougher as China is not releasing the locally produced chips for export. The sweeping change will be greater in 2025.