Free Republic

U.S. national security advisor Robert O’Brien recently sought to shut down debate about whether China tech giant Huawei installs “backdoors” in its gear. “We have evidence,” O’Brien announced on February 11, 2020, that wireless networks around the world have been compromised with access points that Beijing mandates. Well known are the concerns this raises for sensitive public and private sector data. Less understood is just how comprehensive Beijing’s strategy is—and how extensive its reach. WE SAY BACKDOORS, BEIJING SAYS RESERVED INTERFACES The CPC is using internal government directives to mandate that Peoples Republic of China (PRC) manufacturers of information and...

In a rebuke to the anti-encryption campaign waged by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation--with Apple as a target--the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Encryption Working Group issued a report today stating "any measure that weakens encryption works against the national interest." In a bipartisan report, the group observed that "any measure that weakens encryption works against the national interest," citing representatives of the national security community who noted that "strong encryption is vital to the national defense and to securing vital assets, such as critical infrastructure." A second finding of the report was that "encryption technology is a global technology...

Congress plans to question about two dozen federal agencies on whether they were using backdoored Juniper network security appliances. In December, Juniper Networks said it had discovered unauthorized code added to ScreenOS, the operating system that runs on its NetScreen network firewalls. The rogue code, which remained undetected for two years or more, could have allowed remote attackers to gain administrative access to vulnerable devices or to decrypt VPN connections. The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to determine the impact that this issue had on government organizations and how those organizations responded to the incident. The...