Chinese trojan kill switch in electronic components.

[tb888]

Most of the things we use in the west are made in Peoples Republic of China including electronics. I've read alot of articles on how they chinese could easily be implementing kill switchs (disable the component) deep inside the components which they could activate in a time of war for example. Something like this happened towards the collapase of the USSR, the Americans managed to destroy part of a Russian oil pipeline by seeting them up with software designed to destroy the pipeline. It caused the biggest non-nuclear man made explosion ever. Interesting concept.

ussr pipeline links -
Siberian pipeline sabotage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WashPost: CIA slipped bugs to Soviets - Washington Post- msnbc.com

chinese kill switch:
Pentagon fears trojans, kill switches in foreign-made CPUs
Could China install 'kill switches' in military microchips? | FP Passport

[opsmonkey]

its very possible..

i know C++ programmers that have built 'faults' into their software so that periodically business's that have bought their software have to call them out to 'fix' issues.. leading to call out charges etc..

[GoliaBC]

It seems an epidemic!
My phone, which is a Sony Ericsson (made in China) broke just 1 day after the contract with my phone company ran out!!! This makes me think that it might have a chip programmed to make the phone break just a the end of the contract, something like an expiring date, so you have to buy a new one! That is how the make money I guess.

We are far too dependent from china these days!!!

[opsmonkey]

We are far too dependent from china these days!!!

i agree.. i have to eat out at Yo Yo Beijing in Lincoln at least once a week

[tenbobdylan]

wow that sounds like some one has merged the plots of the world is not enough and a view to a kill into one easy to follow bs package (arh mr Bond).

say the chiness or anyone else for that matter had implmented such devices into the electrionic they make, why wait to set them off?, there has been times all ready were if such a plan was in the works then it would has almost certainly been put into action by now.

o hang on thought maybe there is some truth in what you say, every time an xbox 360 is put to gether maybe a kill switch is wired into it so when the poeple of china ,tiwain ,japan or were ever get pissed off they press a button an yes we get another Three Red Rings of Death.

[Biohazard4]

its a global conspiracy i tell u!!!

[thered]

what a load of 5hite


i have bought many things from china and most ~~~~ up after a few weeks so to say they have made chips that will self destruct may be true after all everything else they do breaks straight away

[bodaccea]

i wouldnt worry too much. Quality of stuff from there is awful. methinks instead of a big bang you would more likely get a little puff

[tb888]

First off, the chinese are in fact an ally, so they naturally wouldn't have been set off (why would that even make sense?). Although if we decalared war on china right now, they would probably win (although we'd all come out pretty bad). The thing about this 'kill switch' is that it would be practically undetectable, we are talking IC level here. Given that almost all of our mass produced electronics (and everything else) are produced in the PRC, this wouldn't be hard to do (and the advantage in a time of war would be a game changer) - the Americans done stuff like this all the time during the cold war. You would just have to poison the components btw.

Let me elaborate on this theroy, we are talking about anything that talks to the internet - you can make the ICs respond to certain system states that could be acheived from data received from the outside. I'm not talking about a remote control kill switch.

Who said anything about explosions or bangs? you are talking about the ability to disable air defense, radar - they just need to stop working.

I don't really believe this idea to be honest, I just though it would be interesting topic for this section of the site.

[caveman_nige]

Out of all the BS in this section this thread is the only one that is plausible and has merit.. A very interesting read..

[RedSpider]

i don't believe this theory although i do find it intriguing.
surely there must be somebody who makes a living repairing these electronics who might notice something out of place.especially if they believe something like this and are looking for evidence to prove it.
i wouldn't imagine that if a war happens then the first thing the chinese would do would be to flick a switch and declare 'right... no more tv for you then'.
its more likely to me that if such a killswitch exists then it would purely be to ensure that products dont too long and forcing you to part with more money.
just like them cheeky micriosoft buggers. i've never heard of anyone having a xbox360 that lasted more than 12-18 months before dying. most people don't know or just plain don't bother to have them repair or replace them as they're obliged to by law within 3 years.

[maxi1968]

china would never dare install trojan kill switch into any export goods as the uk and usa.as we and the us are there biggest trading partners.anyway every other country in the region hates them.

[alunfennell]

I have worked in electronics manufacturing for over ten year and before that IBM & Minolta and I can tell you that certain practics take place within different companys that would confirm the above & its not only the Peoples Republic of China that are responsable for this shady practice !

As most of you know nearly every big company out sources not only there manufacturing but also the technical support, both of which are designed to make money, technical support for such thing like servers are on a subscription bases service (or services like Apple Care) you pay for the privilage.

Some companys use materials edited with intermitent bugs to keep call centers busy and has been the practice for years ! nothing serious of course and not every item is designed to do so just one or two in every batch.

Since the start of call centers used by companys to increase revenue this has been happening and will continue to do so !

Regards:
Alun

[cataha]

Most of the things we use in the west are made in Peoples Republic of China including electronics. I've read alot of articles on how they chinese could easily be implementing kill switchs (disable the component) deep inside the components which they could activate in a time of war for example. Something like this happened towards the collapase of the USSR, the Americans managed to destroy part of a Russian oil pipeline by seeting them up with software designed to destroy the pipeline. It caused the biggest non-nuclear man made explosion ever. Interesting concept.

ussr pipeline links -
Siberian pipeline sabotage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WashPost: CIA slipped bugs to Soviets - Washington Post- msnbc.com

chinese kill switch:
Pentagon fears trojans, kill switches in foreign-made CPUs
Could China install 'kill switches' in military microchips? | FP Passport

I worked for major company "UNNAMED", 60-70% of people in world use and will use. The point is, it has a back door that can only be open with knowledge of it's existents and without owners knowledge at the time of use, and i was in that team.... so i know when somebody says of such maybe, i know for sure there is.

[xant14]

There was a prog on telly last year ish about the indian burgler alarm installer. He set the electronics to cause the alarm to malfunction after the warranty ran out, maybe 14 months after install. Then when called out to 'repair' it. reset it for another 14 months or so.

things are made to die nowadays, deliberate poor quality components. Some interesting stories on the service centre and tech centres.