Gotta admire the Chinese:, brings a new meaning to 'cheap as chips'.

Cambridge University researchers find that a microprocessor used by the US military but made in China contains secret remote access capability UPDATED
A microchip used by the US military and manufactured in China contains a secret "backdoor" that means it can be shut off or reprogrammed without the user knowing, according to researchers at Cambridge University's Computing Laboratory.

Latest news on my hardware security research


Makes me wonder if the Chinese, whom have no word for copyright, have perhaps copied 'some-ones' PLC chips so completely that even the vulnerabilities are duplicated ...

The conspiracy: if you research this backwards back to Cambridge University very little is revealed about the details of the chips. Some might say this is to keep vulnerabilities out of the hands of 'terrorsits'. I think what may be closer to the truth is many western governments, including the US government, whilst on one hand is attempting to smite down all ye citizens that steal a song of the radio... oh i mean- "copy intellectual property without authorization of owner of said intellectual property". On the other hand the administration is taking advantage of cheap chimese chips, that are, for the most part pirate chips. I wonder how much stolen material is spread around the planet and I wonder when the anti anti piracy movement will stumble upon this?

 

The ProASIC3 field-programmable gate array (FPGA), manufactured by Semiconductor company Microsemi.

RT ProASIC3 FPGA: The Industry's First Flash-Based, Radiation-Tolerant FPGA for Low-Power Space Applications

 

Neither the administration nor the DoD is "taking advantage" of cheap chinese chips...most chips are a global commodity, and defense manufacturers (along with everyone else) typically buy them in bulk from brokers at the going rate.

The brokers may be making a buck by sourcing cheaper products.

The DoD (and certainly not the "administration") is not specifying chinese parts...they just have performance specifications for the finished product.

But the DoD probably needs to forbid the use of IC chips from certain countries in critical applications...too easy to build in "bonus features", and too hard to catch all of them.

 

For certain applications, specifically related to encryption there are detailed requirements for all components to be made in the US. These are commonly used for GigE/10GigE for WAN links that also require both ends to have the right keys exchanged, etc. The gear also has an interesting RMA/return process where I believe the devices are destroyed rather than returning the components to the manufacturer. I've heard stories that they'd send back essentially dust/bits back if the vendor wanted it (they didn't).

As for commodity equipment coming from Asia, that's just how the industry is. Vendors go to integrators in Asia and they source the parts that meet the specifications/price. This also leads to grey market equipment where a factory by day builds it for vendor (Cisco/HP/whatever), but at night they pump out the same gear for the grey market (eBay, etc).

 

Not true...I and my co-workers do not and will never use a STE or STU due to its being made with non-US chips /hardware.

 

Interesting. Guess I'm glad I have VOIP.