Posted on 11/22/2007 4:12:01 AM PST by Man50D
One week after a Chinese subcontractor manufacturing computer hard drives for sale in America was discovered to have been placing a Trojan horse on them that would upload users' passwords to a website in Beijing, the manufacturer says it doesn't believe the Chinese government was involved.
Seagate Technology, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, told WND: "We have no indication, nor any reason to believe, the Chinese authorities were involved at all."
The report first surfaced in Asia in a story by the Taipei Times, which said some 1,800 Maxtor Basics 3200 hard drives manufactured in China contained two Trojan horses programmed to upload secretly to websites in Beijing anything the computer saves on the drive.
Webopedia.com defines "Trojan horse" as "a destructive program that masquerades as a benign application." Unlike viruses, the site says, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves "but they can be just as destructive."
Investigation Bureau officials from the Taipei Ministry of Justice suspect Chinese government authorities were involved as part of "an aggressive spying program relying on information technology and the Internet," the Times reported.
Woody Monroe, a spokesman for Seagate, confirmed to WND the hard drives in question did contain Trojan horses when marketed to consumers.
In a corporate statement provided toWND, Seagate argued the Trojan horses on the hard drives gathered only passwords for online games.
The company argued, "Our investigation also determined that the introduction of the virus (sic) was accidental and was not purposeful or malicious."
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Duncan Hunter ping!
Unreal. I wonder if certain secure US GOVERNMENT departments are customers?
This kind of crap is a serious security breach.
Even if the ChiCom government isn’t involved, the company could still market this info to... wealthy parties of interest.
Hunter is the only one addressing these issues about FT with Commie China.
Subsidizing your enemies is never good business
Oh, I’m sure we can take Seagate’s word that the Chicom government was not involved in this. Suuuuurrrrrre we can.
I think most companies using Chinese subcontractors need to be re-evaluating at this point.
The answer is YES. Are there terrorists in the US gov't? YES.
Let us be thankful that they have not been successful at wiping out multiple cities .... yet.
When you succumb to pure materialism (the bottom line rules in all things), then you end up defending treacherous people with any kind of lame excuse you can think of. The main objective is to be able to continue to do business in China, no matter what the cost to others (such as your customers). It was an accident that the trojan horses were included on the hard drives? I suppose it was an accident that the trojan horses were sending the information to Beijing?
I’m not buying it. Seagate bows down to their Chinese masters.
Chinese gov’t not to blame for infected hard-drives?
the chinese are not to blame for lead painted toys/poison pet food/or any other substandard products.....it is the bad americans’ fault!!!!!
I do. Too many sensitive breakins have been traced to their government agencies. Their contempt for patents and copyrights knows no bounds, even if the hackings were their "private Industry"- Not that there is any difference in a Communist state.
They need to be disconnected.
“When you succumb to pure materialism (the bottom line rules in all things), then you end up defending treacherous people with any kind of lame excuse you can think of.”
Sounds like the public policy of TROP Bush Administration.
This sounds exactly like the announcement that was made by Hasbro (or whoever) after the toys scandal.
MADE IN CHINA is a warning label.
LOL! What is scary is that you’re right.
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