Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Given how easy is to put and keep hidden malware into devices, governments should demand openness in that field as well. By "putting malware" I don't mean script kiddies in their moms basement but malware/spyware planted by design, which is extremely easy to do if you're the manufacturer, extremely easy to demand/force if you're the government above that manufacturer, and extremely hard to detect if you're a different user in a different country under a government that didn't demand full openness. I know it's impossible as business rules go, but ideally it shouldn't be.


The thing is governments are the people doing it, and most governments want to be able to put backdoors in more badly than they want other governments to not put backdoors in.


Every intel processor has a closed source IME, which is probably a NSA backdoor.


Isn’t minix open source?


Yes, the original is, but it's under a permissive license so Intel don't have to release the modified source code of their version.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: