These Fake Chinese Microchips Were Made To Disarm U.S. Missiles.

[Ponce]

When will the US government learn that 85% of all Chinese business are owned by the government?.....next, they will be coming from the state of Israel and we will be back at square one.
=============================================



These Fake Chinese Microchips Were Made To Disarm U.S. Missiles.

Robert Johnson | Jun. 27, 2011, 9:22 AM | 18,162 | 83

Last year, the U.S. Navy bought 59,000 microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders that turned out to be counterfeits from China.

Wired reports the chips weren't only low-quality fakes, they had been made with a "back-door" and could have been remotely shut down at any time.

If left undiscovered the result could have rendered useless U.S. missiles and killed the signal from aircraft that tells everyone whether it's friend or foe.

Apparently foreign chip makers are often better at making cheap microchips and U.S. defense contractors are loathe to pass up the better deal.

The problem remains with these "trojan-horse" circuits that can be built into the chip and are almost impossible to detect -- especially without the original plans to compare them to.

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) is now looking for ways to check the chips to make sure they haven't been hacked in the production process.

Expect to see a whole lot more funding directed to this goal. Or, considering IARPA is the research and development section of the intelligence community -- expect the money to be spent -- don't expect to see where.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/navy-chinese-microchips-weapons-could-have-been-shut-off-2011-6#ixzz1QcduXd9x

[vacuum]

I guess if you are going to manufacture overseas, you are going to have to give your design to someone overseas. Then the product can be built by someone who buys the design off the black market. In this case not only did that happen, but the design was tweaked to add a back door.

A lot of times the gross margin on a product may be 50%, meaning they are sold for twice as much as it costs to make them from raw materials. This pays for all the R&D costs. But it also means a company can be undercut by someone selling their own design cheaper than they do. For a company in China, taking a design and making 25% profit with virtually no effort is like printing money.

[beefsteak]

Exactly right, vacuum. +1

[Ponce]

What pisses me off is that we can spend TWENTY BILLIONS DOLLARS on air conditioner for the troops in Afgha but not one billion (or less) for the safety of our country.....by the way, did you know that the codes to launch the US missiles was designed by a company in the state of Israel?.........crap, we are dead meat.