China Chip Backdoor Confirmed
Thereβs been chatter and well-informed theories from the highest levels that China-manufactured microchips could have backdoors that could allow hackers into both those chips and associated systems.
Well, itβs not conjecture anymore.
According to this article at DefenseTech, the βPA3β chipββconsidered to be one of the βmost impenetrableβ on the marketββactually has a backdoor built into it. The discovery was made by Cambridge researcher and scientist Sergei Skorobogatov.
The scary part? This isnβt a chip for smartphones, for example. Rather, itβsβ¦
β¦used in military βweapons, guidance, flight control, networking and communicationsβ hardware, according to Skorobogatovβs report on his findings that was published last weekend. The PA3 is also used in civilian βnuclear power plants, power distribution, aerospace, aviation, public transport and automotive products,β according to Skorobogatov.
Specifically, the chip in question is the American-designed, China-manufactured Actel/Microsemi ProASIC3 A3P250βa Field Reprogrammable Gate Array (FRGA), which is βan almost blank slate of a microchipβ that can be programmed for different tasks.
Malware delivery? Heck, the malwareβs built right in. Patchable? No, since the problemβs on silicon. Even if software is developed to prevent backdoor entry, βan attacker can use the underlying hardware to circumvent the software countermeasures.β
Actel/Microsemi promo copy saysβ¦
"Our high-density, military-temperature ProASIC3 and ProASIC3EL devices give designers the increased logic they need for their sophisticated military and aerospace applications. The combination of industry-leading low power and high reliability provides an extremely desirable solution for these systems."
Uh-huh. Doesnβt that make you feel all safe and cozy?
Wow. Talk about Crichtonesque story potential.
Speaking of China: Apple Moving More Manufacturing Back to U.S.?
Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that manufacturing of several iPhone parts could be headed back to the U.S.
Problems? Just a couple, the first coming from this article at MacNNβ¦
[Cook] added that one of the main areas of manufacture, tool and die, couldn't be done in the US since there were so few tool and die makers left in the US. You'd need "several large cities" to hold all the tool and die makers in China. By comparison, you couldn't fill [a large room] with US tool and die makers, he said.
Another problem? Coming right up. Even if more of Appleβs manufacturing comes back (Currently, the iPhoneβs A-Series processor and Gorilla Glass are made here at home.), we need to remember that most iPhone parts will continue to be made in China. Some parts (here) will require other parts (there), so the logistics start getting nightmarish. According to this brief at Electronista referencing DigiTimes, βshipping the parts back to the U.S. could prove too expensive.β
As factually pointed out in countless articles, for example, the U.S.βas opposed to Chinaβwill likely never again have factory towns where hordes of workers can be quickly mobilized.
Availability of engineering talent is also an issue. Some have said for years that we do, in fact, have a shortage of engineers in the U.S., others have more recently said that this is hogwash. We certainly donβt have the ability to quickly throw, for instance, a thousand engineers at a short-schedule projectβas can China.
Nice PR move there, Mr. Cook.
Stuxnet: Itβs Official. Again. We Did It.
On the heels of recent discovery of the Flame Trojan comes word from The New York Times that not only were the U.S. and Israel responsible for Stuxnet, but President Obamaβ¦
β¦secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iranβs main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding Americaβs first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.
Huh. Iβm shocked.
Welcome to a new world in which digital attacks can do much more damage than just blowing stuff up.
Right off the bat and without tens of millions worth of think-tankers, one can quickly wonder when and how such enemies will retaliate.
Answers to Cool, Decades-Old Spy Plane Question Declassified
SR-71 Blackbird: perhaps the most ominous aircraft in history, and always the subject of my favorite, drool-worthy imagesβ¦
(Go here for the full, wallpaper-sized, 1280 x 800 image of the above. It's only 72 dpi, though.)
Delivered by Lockheedβs Skunk Works in 1966. Speeds over Mach 3. Bounces off the edges of space at 85,000 feet. Whatβs not to like?
There were a few versions of the project, one being the SR-71βs predecessor, the CIAβs A-12 Oxcart. They look pretty much the same; hereβs an A-12β¦
Whatβs the difference?
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act and this brief at DefenseTech, the A-12 was lighter and could thus fly 2,000 to 5,000 feet higher at speeds comparable to that of the SR-71. It weighed less since it didnβt carry as much stuff. The SR-71, on a single mission, could packβ¦
- two βtechnical objective camerasβ
- two βoperational objective camerasβ
- one βterrain objective cameraβ
- one βhigh resolutionβ side-looking radar
- one infrared camera
- one electronic and communications intelligence-gathering package
- three electronic warfare (countermeasures) systems, βCFAX, APR 27 and System 13Cβ
Hereβs the Scribd link to the readable/downloadable declassified document with specificsβ¦
One commenter at the above-linked DefenseTech piece said about the β71βs speed capabilitiesβ¦
A late friend of mine worked in the Skunkworks on everything from P-38s to the A-12 / Blackbirds and retired in the '70s. He had a lot of cool stories to tell and some he wouldn't. I asked him one day, long after he retired, how fast the SR-71 would go balls-out. He said "I don't know and I'm not sure there are more than a dozen people that really do, but I installed the Mach meters in all of them and the meters will read over Mach 4."
Granted, just because the speedo goes to 160 doesnβt mean that the car in which itβs installed will do 160. But weβre talking top-secret, Groom Lake, alien technology here.
Thereβs a whole bunch of A-12 material right on the CIA site, too.
(Pssst. Buddy. Wanna buy a used SR-71 tail rudder? There's one on eBay for a mil. With 49 offers so far. Hat tip to Jalopnik.)
Sixteen-Year-Old Solves 350-Year Old Math Problem
According to Discovery News, yet another, previously unsolved questionβs been answeredβ¦
Sixteen-year-old Shouryya Ray, a boy of Indian origin attending school in Germany, cracked two particle dynamics theories. Ray's novel solutions can now help scientists calculate the flight path of a thrown ball and predict how it will strike and bounce off a wall, according to the International Business Times.
I was doing a lot of things at 16. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), not a single one of those things involved solving Newtonian math problems.