Unfortunately, we’re not talking about potato chips. We’re talking about the kind of chips that run American guided missiles. Yo, Navy, ever read the tale of the Trojan Horse?
The Business Insider chips away at the story:
Last year, the U.S. Navy bought 59,000 microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders and all of them 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.
In other words, a guided missle run by one of these chips is no longer “guided”. Not by our side, anyway.
Apparently foreign chip makers are often better at making cheap microchips and U.S. defense contractors are loathe to pass up the better deal.
Reminds us of the guy afraid to cross a bridge: all he could think of was that the contract to build it went to the lowest bidder.
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.
Suggestion: buy useless junk like Obama’s golf equipment and booze for Nancy’s Pelosi’s 757 from the cheapest source possible but buy important microchips only from reliable vendors.
We’re all for saving money but we’d prefer Obama’s putter fails than a Cruise missile.
– Written by Bonfire of the Absurdities
Source: Business Insider
This post was last modified on July 6, 2011
View Comments (14)
Ahhh yes...this is why Government contracting officers need to abide by the "Buy American" clause of their contracts when they go out a purchase stuff....it not only good for the economy its good for the purchased item.....
Another goofy govn't worker not following the rules and wasting our money I suppose.
It's All , Bush 's Fault . As in the Infamous Words of P. T. Barnum , " There Is A Sucker Born Every Minute " .
This is not as worrisome as I thought it was. At first glance I thought it said ships. Imagine, USN SS Schezuan. But then I read it with my eyes blinking at the same time. Whew! Made it.
Oh, would someone please carefully read the source before getting all wound up?
The Business Insider post quoted Wired (yes, Wired) as the source. The BI post title is "The Navy Bought Fake Chinese Microchips That Could Have Disarmed U.S. Missiles" (my emphasis). Bonfire ignored that modifier, and ran with the statement in the BI article which says "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."
Now. If one actually follows the link, and reads the original Wired article, one will very quickly discover that the original claim is that the counterfeit chips "could have been hacked." Could, not was. The rest of the article discusses methods IARPA has been exploring to ensure the DoD is buying legitimate chips.
So. Wired suggests that counterfeit chips may have trojans built-in, BI changes that to a statement of fact, after which Bonfire of the Vanities jumps all over this card-house of hypotheticals.
BTW, the BI article has an excellent comment from "nerdbert," explaining how and why the DoD got stuck in this situation. Alas, there's little room for political finger-pointing given the sane explanation he offers.
You better wake up sonny, "could have" means yes we can in the future if we want to.
When it comes to national defense, the protection of American citizens and our country, no cost is too high. Millions of us veterans can explain it to you, freedom is not free it has to be earned, but unless you have been there and done that I seriously doubt you would understand.
I'd give you 2 thumbs up if I could! :)
"... Bonfire ignored that modifier, and ran with the statement in the BI article which says “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.”
my EMPHASIS. "Could." Same word, or "modifier" as you call it.
Now...what was the problem, dickface?
So, Casey, you're all for buying cheap, defective junk from China to control our weaponry?
This has been a tenet of Marxism-Leninism since the get go: Sell the capitalist the rope he'll hang himself with.
Well, surely we were forewarned....didn't anyone from our Esteemed Government read this story back in late 2007/ early 2008?
http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-02-15/business/17139861_1_trojan-horse-computer-associates-security-vendor
At Christmastime in 2007, I had purchased three digital picture frames from Costco and thankfully I read the article before opening and using the frames, so back they went!
Good warning. I wasn't planning on buying a digital photo frame, but I'll mention the article to my friends.
This doesn't surprise me. I'm sure the decision maker got a big promotion for saving money. My wife's small company does some govt business, often collecting data on water quality. She has a competitor that bids cheap cheap cheap but then simply makes up the data rather than actually going out on the water and conducting any measurements or research. Then the govt yoyo's start making regulations based on made up data. Thus idiotic regulations. The govt answer, "Yes but he was the low bidder" Know how much meeting spec's count? Zero? It is all price unless of course there are kickbacks involved. That's why bridges fall apart in a few years and highways crumble. Meet specifications? We dont need no stinking specifications
How to tell if your chips are made in China:
1) Installation instructions written in over polite bad english such as 'Please to be caful to install in collect configulation".
2) After completeing the deal the salesman asks if you be intrested in genuine Rolex watches - only 9.95/case.
3) During tough price negotiations salesman lets it slip that 'You #1 customa".
4) Shipment arrives packaged in rice paper.
5) Salesman drives hard bargain but does say "With 6 you get egg roll".
Sorry gotta stop - Homer wants me to take him for a walk. I think he needs to lay a couple of chinese chips.
This is Roughead's legacy. Let's blow money reconfiguring submarines so the ladies can ride along, but for Heavan's sake, stop spending so much on microchips!