News Nvidia defiant over backdoors and kill switches in GPUs as U.S. mulls tracking requirements — calls them 'permanent flaws' that are 'a gift to hackers

[Admin]

Nvidia has denied backdoors or kill switches in its GPUs amid U.S. proposals for location tracking to enforce export controls. The company calls such features a security risk and “permanent flaw,” warning they could undermine trust. Nvidia lost $8B in sales from recent export restrictions.

Nvidia defiant over backdoors and kill switches in GPUs as U.S. mulls tracking requirements — calls them 'permanent flaws' that are 'a gift to hackers : Read more

 

[vanadiel007]

It's free trade until the government says it's not.
What a world we live in.

 

[drtweak]

I can understand they "Why" of this, but glad Nvidia, and hopefully others, stand their ground.

 

[DS426]

It's free trade until the government says it's not.
What a world we live in.

Nothing is free in this world, my friend. Somebody or something pays for whatever that "free" thing is at some point.

 

[DS426]

I can understand they "Why" of this, but glad Nvidia, and hopefully others, stand their ground.

Agreed. Not often that I can applaud nVidia, but good job on this one, green machine.

 

[tamalero]

Agreed. Not often that I can applaud nVidia, but good job on this one, green machine.

Its not like they are doing it to be kind or defend global trade lmao.
Its all about money. THEIR money.

 

[Li Ken-un]

It’s a great way to ensure that customers residing in ally nations also don’t want to buy the product.

 

[Rob1C]

Something is probably going to be done, especially in light of the current administration coming up with ideas that aren't universally popular.

Maybe the license to use would specify that the device not be used in export restricted countries, then it phones home every few years and not only updates the firmware but renews the free license. It would be a significant amount of trouble to box up millions of cards and ship them to where they could access the license renewal server (with a latency test), it would greatly reduce the value of the cards if they came with a gauntlet to run https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_the_gauntlet .

 

[Notton]

Do you think Nvidia would allocate any software development or silicon space for such features without extreme dividends to make it worth their time?

I don't think so either.

 

[mwestall]

Nothing is free in this world, my friend. Somebody or something pays for whatever that "free" thing is at some point.

Free as in speech, not beer.
Not that free trade or free markets exist, they guarantee monopolies, so all are regulated by governments of all stripes.

 

[nookoool]

Reason for countries to hedge and buy Chinese chips

 

[umeng2002_2]

I think it's good that large companies actually push back against asinine legislation. Yes, and this applies to governments all over the world, legislators often propose and pass laws that are unconstitutional or violate some overarching national document.

 

[A Stoner]

Nominally, this would not be made public. My gut feeling is that they are implementing these back doors, and will argue that they were just 'bugs' rather than deliberate when they are eventually discovered.

 

[TechieTwo]

Nominally, this would not be made public. My gut feeling is that they are implementing these back doors, and will argue that they were just 'bugs' rather than deliberate when they are eventually discovered.

I agree with this POV. The only question IMO is will the black hats or the white hats discover the back doors first?

 

[vanadiel007]

Nothing is free in this world, my friend. Somebody or something pays for whatever that "free" thing is at some point.

I was trying to point out free as in free to trade. Not free as in cost.

 

[hotaru251]

honestly if its 1 company that has any hope of refusing these threats its Nvidia.

USA won't piss em off lest they go to another country.

basically due to their near monopoly of gpu's in the bleeding edge needs.

 

[umeng2002_2]

Nominally, this would not be made public. My gut feeling is that they are implementing these back doors, and will argue that they were just 'bugs' rather than deliberate when they are eventually discovered.

This is more than likely true. In fact, disclosing a back door can be illegal; although I think the courts might have tossed out the national security letter disclosure prohibition.