Why you all keep luving PC and phone crap from China

[intakexhaust]

Fair trade, my azz. From early on and from one time owning an HP laptop with the hooted bio-metric finger scanner, I knew never to trust or use it. America is buried with the love of Apple and every other electronic crap made in China. The espionage and theft of your privacy is GONE. You just don't know it yet. God bless you youngsters and future of this USA.

OPM: 5.6 million sets of fingerprints lost in cyberattack

One of the scariest parts of the massive cybersecurity breaches at the Office of Personnel Management just got worse: The agency now says 5.6 million people's fingerprints were stolen as part of the hacks.

That's more than five times the 1.1 million government officials estimated when the cyberattacks were initially disclosed over the summer. However, OPM said Wednesday the total number of those believed to be caught up in the breaches, which included the theft of the Social Security numbers and addresses of more than 21 million former and current government employees, remains the same.

OPM and the Department of Defense were reviewing the theft of background investigation records when they identified additional fingerprint data that had been exposed, OPM said in a statement.

Breaches involving biometric data like fingerprints are particularly concerning to privacy experts because of their permanence: Unlike passwords and even Social Security numbers, fingerprints cannot be changed. So those affected by this breach may find themselves grappling with the fallout for years.

“The fact that the number [of fingerprints breached] just increased by a factor of five is pretty mind-boggling,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, the chief technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology. “I’m surprised they didn't have structures in place to determine the number of fingerprints compromised earlier during the investigation.”

Lawmakers, too, were upset about the latest revelation. "OPM keeps getting it wrong," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). " I have zero confidence in OPM’s competence and ability to manage this crisis."

As fingerprints increasingly replace passwords as a day-to-day security measure for unlocking your iPhone or even your home, security experts have grown concerned about how hackers might leverage them.

But federal experts believe the potential for "misuse" of the stolen fingerprints is currently limited, according to OPM, but that could "could change over time as technology evolves." It also said an interagency working group including experts from law enforcement and the intelligence community will review ways that the fingerprint data could be abused and try to develop ways to prevent that from happening.

"If, in the future, new means are developed to misuse the fingerprint data, the government will provide additional information to individuals whose fingerprints may have been stolen in this breach," OPM said.

OPM says it is still in the process of notifying everyone caught up in the breach. But they will be offered free identity theft and fraud protection services, the agency said.

China is widely suspected of being behind the breaches, perhaps as part of move to build a massive database on Americans. But U.S. government officials have so far declined to publicly blame the nation for the cyberattacks. Chinese President Xi Jinping is currently visiting the U.S. and described China as a strong defender of cybersecurity and a victim of hacking itself during a speech in Seattle on Tuesday.

One lawmaker criticized OPM for releasing the data during the pope's visit to Washington: "Today's blatant news dump is the clearest sign yet that the administration still acts like the OPM hack is a PR crisis instead of a national security threat," said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) in a statement.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

Chinese President Xi Jinping is currently visiting the U.S. and described China as a strong defender of cybersecurity and a victim of hacking itself during a speech in Seattle on Tuesday.

One lawmaker criticized OPM for releasing the data during the pope's visit to Washington: "Today's blatant news dump is the clearest sign yet that the administration still acts like the OPM hack is a PR crisis instead of a national security threat," said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) in a statement.

Gottta love politics. If the info had been released at any other time whiner Sasse would be complaining that it wasn't released when the Chinese president was here because, "... acts like the OPM hack is a PR crisis instead of a national security threat"

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by pitargue

China's Silicon Valley power play | TheHill

Careful, an ad appears with sound on this web page.

"Chinese officials have summoned top American tech executives to Seattle for a forum on Wednesday in a show of force that could make the Obama administration’s standing in Silicon Valley appear weak by comparison.

And our traffic is an absolute MESS because of it.
Mr Chinese President? PLEASE GO AWAY.

OUr traffic this morning. Currently much worse than this ten mile backup in black you actually see...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Don't get me wrong - I detest the fact that so much of American consumerism is driven by price point only which plays right into China's hands (virtually everything made in de facto slave labor conditions by poor men, women and children with no safety or environmental protections), but it seems weird to decry JUST China (Chinese iPhones?) when the biggest data breach in history is attributable to US government incompetence equally as much (if not moreso) as Chinese spying / cybercrime.

The US government bungled the protection of employee data - no question. The Chinese government might have been behind it but it could have been anyone - the poor security wouldn't have stopped any motivated attacker from the sound of it.

[scottmandue]

China = one of our enemies
China = one of our biggest benefactors
What could go wrong?

[intakexhaust]

Thank you oh govt. leaders of the great USA

Imported snakes into Florida now released into the wild, turned hybrid massive prey eating.

Imported and endorsed from the south border illegal aliens.

Imported electronic crap from hybrid China commies!

Whats next?

[HardDrive]

Why do I have a Chinese made iphone? Because making one in the US would cost $2000.

[gtc]

My first smartphone, the original Motorola Droid, was made in the USA. Not surprisingly, that thing was a tank. Not quite "Nokia 3310 tough," but close. And it was also fairly open and free from bloatware.

[pitargue]

My current LG G4 was made in Korea.

[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Why do I have a Chinese made iphone? Because making one in the US would cost $2000.

I don't think this is the case... For starters, the manufacturing cost is surprisingly low:



Furthermore, a large portion of the above pieces are pretty well automated one would think. If we ignored the capital costs to actually re-locate the production of the bulk of these components to the USA, it's hard to imagine that the manufacturing costs would be much more than 20% higher.


Who here wouldn't pay $40 more for an iPhone made in the USA?

[gacook]

Originally Posted by TheMentat

Who here wouldn't pay $40 more for an iPhone made in the USA?

I wouldn't. I also wouldn't pay $200 less for an iPhone; they're the worst smart phone on the market (from a technology perspective).

[intakexhaust]

My little message to fellow Pelicans is we've got to turn the mentality around on the younger generation and thinking we need this globalization crap and technology. We are so duped and in trouble.

I've listened to the 20 some y.o. and their 'soft' heart for those SLAVES of ASIAN countries where this MUST HAVE crap comes from. The Chinese have blindsided the West in such ways you could never dream of.

You should have some fear and DON'T count on law enforcement. They don't even know how to stop it, nor govt. Without going into details, I've heard firsthand the extraordinary depth stolen information of our largest corp's have left the gates open. Namely via insurance industry, of which is tied into everything and everyone. Who really knows how most of our stolen info. will be used, but if China wants to manipulate, they could do some serious damage.

The biometric hack really could change ones easy come, easy go view. Wild thinking but if traveling abroad, one could be setup or framed for a crime with fingerprint traces. Or perhaps one has authorized use for something by biometric keypass, etc.. Maybe this could configured and used with malicious intent. Tie it in with all the Facesmack bullschitt and who knows what?!

[HardDrive]

*shakes head*

If you actually believe that you could make a smart phone in the US for a mere 20% more....wow. Sorry friend, your daft.