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Laid-off Intel employee allegedly steals 'Top Secret' files, then disappears — ex-engineer downloaded 18,000 files before vanishing (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/hardware@lemmy.world
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[–] 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Well, we don't actually know what was taken.

Depending on the information this could be anything from basic technical information to all the state sponsored backdoor tooling they've implemented across their stack.

The former might "hurt" them on some level if chinese companies steal their designs and sell them as counterfeit, but the latter has security implications for anybody with intel gear from the poorest individuals to the wealthiest companies.

Just saying, you never know how this could impact things down the road.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    Nah, I think the latter would be great. Sure, short term it could cause issues, though not really for the average person. China will use it to influence politics for those people maybe, but they don't have any large use for it. The US government has far more use for it in regard to them, so that's actually a threat. It would be a risk for the government and western companies.

    The benefit of this being lost to China is they'd have to fix what backdoors they can, and maybe reconsider creating new ones. This is a huge benefit to American consumers. It only hurts those who asked for the backdoors in the first place, which is presumably the US government.

    I don't live in China, so I'm not really worried about China's government. I live in the US, so I'm worried about the US government.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Zero chance of them not replacing or patching backdoors if another actor gets access.

    China having a backdoor into everybody's intel systems is terrible. Nobody should have backdoors into our computers. There are no impartial, apolitical or morally or ethically positive organization out there. Bias is literally everywhere.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    I didn't say China having it was bad. I said the US having it is significantly worse. What's China going to use it for against me? They can't arrest me or anything.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Use your imagination as if you're a spy agency.

    Maybe they use your system to generate illicit traffic that incriminates you, and then they offer to keep it secret or fix it so long as you go along with whatever objective you might be useful for.

    I literally don't care what nation it is though. They're all evil. If there's a chance for them to use anybody anywhere to further their goals, they'll take it.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    That's my point though. China has effectily no use for it for the average person. Sure, it is useful for people in ciritcal positions, but not the average person.

    For America, it's useful for anyone. They can keep tabs on you to make sure you're following along with what they want, and they actually have a reason to do something about it.

    Yes, they're all evil. That's why I'm less bothered by China and more by the US, because the US has a reason to be evil to me. China doesn't really. If China gets access, the US has to fight that access, which benefits us all. Not because either side is good, but because what's good for us also becomes useful for them.

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