They were screening for terrorists. Just like the U.S. does.

*snerk*

"Hard."

*snerksnerk*

I bet his WoW account got cleaned out.

So why would a US diplomat give the Chinese access to his hard drive? Diplomats are not subject to search.

steveo: I bet his WoW account got cleaned out.

Then they learned he was the one buying all their gold.

I say we invade!

[OBVIOUS]

If there's one thing we don't stand for in this country, it's Chinese espionage!

Except if it happens in international waters, and involves U.S. military and personnel!

Then we apologize! Yeah!

Again?

Or is this old news re-reported?

2wolves: They were screening for terrorists. Just like the U.S. does.

Yup. We've got no room to complain.

China may have copied laptop hard drive of US Commerce official during diplomatic visit

FTFY subby.

I reimage every laptop upon my users' returns from China...as a standard practice.

It's ugly behind the Great Firewall of China.
As soon as an English OS poops up on their network, a rootkit is immediately installed.

unlikely: Again?

Or is this old news re-reported?

Happened in December, but I think just now making the papers due to "unnamed sources."

"Modern copying equipment can duplicate a laptop's storage drive in just minutes."

I call big time bullshiat on that quote. Unless they mean 45 minutes as just minutes. 3 GB a minute is a very very fast copy on most hard drives now a days. That would require a removal of the hard drive itself or maybe the laptop had a firewire 800 port.

sponkster: I call big time bullshiat on that quote.

Not really. Give me 10 minutes and I can copy 20 Gb (my standard user's image size). They probably got him when he went to take a dump.

TaVaMaN: I say we invade!

Oh sure, a polluted, earthquake-prone disaster zone full of dog-eaters. Maybe if they had a ton of oil.

...and they peed in his Coke

Two words: glass bicycle rack

I really wish they'd open their eyes and see how bad their government is.

I Said: I really wish they'd open their eyes and see how bad their government is.

Do you mean China or the US?

The executive "counted five beacons popped into his PDA between the time he got off his plane in Beijing and the time he got to his hotel room," Brenner, chief of the office of the National Counterintelligence Executive under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said during a speech in December.

What the heck's a 'beacon'?

Yah if he didn't have diplomatic immunity, which he probably did, then we can't argue much since it's legal to copy and use data taken from someone's hard drive at US Customs. Oh, but they're Commies.

Diplomatic mission, eh?

Bonkthat_Again: China may have copied laptop hard drive of US Commerce official during diplomatic visit

FTFY subby.

I reimage every laptop upon my users' returns from China...as a standard practice.

It's ugly behind the Great Firewall of China.
As soon as an English OS poops up on their network, a rootkit is immediately installed.

Installed by what? Magic? Good precaution I guess, but I assume you have real security in place to prevent rootkits in the first place?

Re TFA:
So? If there was anything interesting on that laptop, it should have been encrypted, strongly. And it's not like US customs doesn't image laptops.

Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

The Chinese were only looking at his tentacle pron collection.
Nothing to see here, move along.

How is this news? Bush allowed the Chinese to take apart one of our farking military spy planes seven years ago..... now that was a security breach.... this.... not so much.

IndyGemini: Two words: glass bicycle rack

*chortle*

steveo: I bet his WoW account got cleaned out.

Win. Thread over.

Wonder if a Chinese LNG pipeline will mysteriously explode a couple years from now...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4394002

Abner Doon: So? If there was anything interesting on that laptop, it should have been encrypted, strongly. And it's not like US customs doesn't image laptops.

You confuse "should" with "is". Two very different things.

palexc: Abner Doon: So? If there was anything interesting on that laptop, it should have been encrypted, strongly. And it's not like US customs doesn't image laptops.

You confuse "should" with "is". Two very different things.

Then the story should be "retards don't encrypt private data". No?

The Chinese sell the image to US Customs -- it's cheaper that way.

The Chinese were probably ROFLOL...."Look, they plan to use Synergy to corner the markets against us!"



old dilbert

Whatever we do, we should not let this affect their Most Favored Nation status.

"State secrets"

I Said: I really wish they'd open their eyes and see how bad their government is.

Not going to happen. I work with several Chinese and the nationalism is definitely on the upswing. I've already been lectured this year on why the media is lying about Tibet (without any prompting from me, I might add) and someone pointed out yesterday that I forgot to include Taiwan on a map of China that I was using. It may seem silly the way I'm saying it, but there is definitely a trend developing.

The ChiComs learned their lesson after Tiananmen. Let the people have their cars and cell phones and you can get away with anything.

Con_Authority: So why would a US diplomat give the Chinese access to his hard drive? Diplomats are not subject to search.



Diplomatic immunity



has been revoked.

Mentat: The ChiComs and Americans learned their lesson after Tiananmen. Let the people have their cars and cell phones and you can get away with anything.

FTFY

Mentat: Not going to happen. I worked with several Chinese Americans in 2003 and the nationalism is was definitely on the upswing. I've already been I was lectured this that year on why the media is lying about Tibet Saddam (without any prompting from me, I might add) and someone pointed out yesterday that I forgot to include Taiwan Iraq on a map of China the US that I was using. It may seem silly the way I'm saying it, but there is was definitely a trend developing.

The ChiComs Republicans learned their lesson after Tiananmen 9/11. Let the people have their cars and cell phones and you can get away with anything.

FTFY

Denial_of_Death: "State secrets"

That was the best day on the internets I've ever had in my life.

Surprising? Nope.

There are two options for the state department.

1) Issue "travel laptops" to people going abroad. Perhaps an EEE. Strictly utilitarian, with any special information stashed on well encrypted jump drives.

2) Flood the information space with junk. If a hard drive contains loads of dribble it will become difficult to find the real in the unreal. This is an intelligence version of Poe's law.

Goodfella: Con_Authority: So why would a US diplomat give the Chinese access to his hard drive? Diplomats are not subject to search.



Diplomatic immunity



has been revoked.

I'll have what she's having!

/That's.... better?

They're the majority shareholder of the US economy. Don't the Chinese own over half our of our government bonds. It's like the chairman of the board looking into the operations of the company. They coulda asked us to put together a report...

Abner Doon: palexc: Abner Doon: So? If there was anything interesting on that laptop, it should have been encrypted, strongly. And it's not like US customs doesn't image laptops.

You confuse "should" with "is". Two very different things.

Then the story should be "retards don't encrypt private data". No?

Pretty much. You're assuming that a US Commerce "official" even knows what encryption is, much less how to use it on his laptop. Hell, he's probably still trying to figure out how to remove his email once he's read it.

The Chinese also, therefore, have his credit card numbers, PINs, and all that steamy email he was sending his mistress & hoping his wife didn't find.