Posted on 03/28/2006 7:05:27 AM PST by Daytyn71
A US agency is calling for an official probe into Chinese computer firm Lenovo's contract to supply 15,000 computers to the US State Department. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said it feared the PCs could be fitted with bugging devices to spy on the US government.
Lenovo, which last year bought IBM's PC arm, said it had nothing to hide and would welcome the investigation.
Concern has been rising in the US over foreign companies buying US firms.
Political opposition
Earlier this month United Arab Emirates-based docks company Dubai Ports World was forced to announce that it would sell all US ports it had inherited after it bought UK firm P&O.
The move by Dubai Ports World followed extensive opposition from US politicians.
Last year, Chinese oil producer CNOOC withdrew from the race for US oil firm Unocal last year, again in the face of strong US political opposition.
However, Jeff Carlisle, vice president of government relations for Lenovo, said his firm had "nothing to hide".
Mr Carlisle added that no investigation was warranted and voiced concerns that Lenovo could be put at an unfair disadvantage regarding future US government contracts due to the controversy.
The State Department is spending about $13m (£7m) on the Lenovo computers, which are assembled at factories in North Carolina and Mexico.
Mr Carlisle added that the circuit boards are originally made in US ally Taiwan, and not mainland China.
Foreign intelligence
Yet USCC member Michael Wessel said the opportunity for intelligence gathering through the computers was "enormous".
Larry Wortzel, head of the USCC - whose membership is appointed by the US Congress - said he expected US lawmakers to begin a probe.
"If you're a foreign intelligence service and you know that a [US] federal agency is buying 15,000 computers from [a Chinese] company, wouldn't you look into the possibility that you could do something about that?" he said.
bttt
Funny! Spy devices, indeed.
I use a hard-wired network at my home for business and personal stuff. But my wife just bought a new Dell cheapo notebook PC ($499...what a deal!). So, as is my duty, I set it up for her. Once I had all the set up stuff done, I clicked the wireless networking button. Bingo! There were four unprotected wireless networks available to me, and I live in a neighborhood of low-priced homes.
Just to see how stupid these folks were, I connected to each of them. Three had multiple computers in their local network, all with file-sharing enabled, but with not even so much as password protection, so I logged into their networks, then printed a little page I wrote up on their printer, advising them that their network and data were available to all comers and that they might consider some protection.
I'll never access their systems again, of course, but it made me wonder just how many government and business systems are set up so sloppily.
Perhaps I'll take a drive to downtown Saint Paul and just check it out. I'll bet I'll be amazed.
The problem isn't in these Chinese laptops. It's in the stupidity of the IT people who set up the networks.
Is there any brand of laptop not made in China or which has many Chinese made components? If not made in China, most laptops have parts made in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, S. Korea, etc. Chinese companies own parts of those too.
Every laptop the US government uses for high security should first be tested by the NSA for built in bugs.
Shame on IBM (I Bag Money)
The problem is not about who makes those parts. This is a direct buy from China. What is going to happen if there is a conflict between USA & China? This is our NAVY. Spare parts? replacements? This is crazy. If USA does not have a reputable PC manufacture, buy Red China. But we have the best of the world.
I wouldn't be too critical of IBM. IBM sold there Laptop division over a year ago to chinese-owned Lenovo. I would say shame on the State Department. Couldn't they buy laptops from Dell, HP or even Japanese owned Toshiba.
The State Department is spending about $13m (£7m) on the Lenovo computers, which are assembled at factories in North Carolina and Mexico.
Not China.
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