From the article, for the commenters who don't seem to have read it and have a side discussion going about "how do we know Dell or HP hardware isn't compromised?" (answer: nobody knows that, but that's not the reason for the article)...
The ban [on Lenovo hardware for classified networks by multiple western intel agencies] was introduced in the mid-2000s after intensive laboratory testing of its equipment allegedly documented “back-door” hardware and “firmware” vulnerabilities in Lenovo chips.
There are six countries mentioned - China, US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
Do each of those know the actual exploits, or do they just know that exploits exist and to not use these computers?
Assuming they all know, that's a lot of people who can have scary access to Lenovos. I'd be interested to see if that's going to affect the generally good image Lenovo had. My old thinkpad has a bunch of nice security stuff. I still think it's the most secure computer I use, certainly more tamper proof than most other machines I use.
I have a Lenovo X201, would love to see some details, and try to "hack" my own computer, to see what's there.
Very little information about the actual details in the article. If really was a backdoor there and publicly banning a company because of that, wouldn't it make more sense to show the results publicly too? Otherwise it feels more like FUD than responsible research.
Comments
From the article, for the commenters who don't seem to have read it and have a side discussion going about "how do we know Dell or HP hardware isn't compromised?" (answer: nobody knows that, but that's not the reason for the article)...
The ban [on Lenovo hardware for classified networks by multiple western intel agencies] was introduced in the mid-2000s after intensive laboratory testing of its equipment allegedly documented “back-door” hardware and “firmware” vulnerabilities in Lenovo chips.
This is fascinating to me.
There are six countries mentioned - China, US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
Do each of those know the actual exploits, or do they just know that exploits exist and to not use these computers?
Assuming they all know, that's a lot of people who can have scary access to Lenovos. I'd be interested to see if that's going to affect the generally good image Lenovo had. My old thinkpad has a bunch of nice security stuff. I still think it's the most secure computer I use, certainly more tamper proof than most other machines I use.
I have a Lenovo X201, would love to see some details, and try to "hack" my own computer, to see what's there.
Very little information about the actual details in the article. If really was a backdoor there and publicly banning a company because of that, wouldn't it make more sense to show the results publicly too? Otherwise it feels more like FUD than responsible research.
US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are the Five Eyes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes