Hidden malware in offshore products raises concerns [Back doors in Indian and Chinese code]

ComputerWorld ^

[AppyPappy]

Hidden malware in offshore products raises concerns

Story by Mark Willoughby

SEPTEMBER 11, 2003 ( COMPUTERWORLD ) - "You've go to be a little paranoid to survive in this business." -- Andrew S. Grove, chairman and founder, Intel Corp., ca. 1980 The extreme difficulty in discovering a back door hidden deep within a complex application, buried among numerous modules developed offshore in a global software marketplace, is forcing those assigned to protect sensitive national security information to take defensive actions.

The threat of hidden Trojan horses and back doors surfaced this summer when the governments of the U.S. and China announced plans to strengthen national security policies covering information processed by applications written in the global software marketplace. The private sector joined the fray with the August announcement of the File Signature Database, which will use hash values to protect software integrity from malicious additions (see story).

[AppyPappy]

See the other article at the site "Offshore Security: Consider the Risks"

[proxy_user]

As usual, the risks from incompetence, stupidity, and miscommunication are much greater than those from actual evildoers.

[taxcontrol]

Right idea
Wrong take on it.

ANY software, onshore or off, carries the possibility of backdoors.

ALL software should be checked, cross checked, and tested for such malicious code - regardless of its origin.