Tuesday, August 09, 2011
The US Navy Bought Fake Chinese Microchips That Could Have Disarmed U.S. Missiles
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.
Apparently foreign chip makers are often better at making cheap microchips and U.S. defense contractors are loathe to pass up the better deal
IMO: You really would think that buying such microchips from people who might soon be in a war with you, is not very sensible. US made chips could be turn out to be safer in the US at least, one hopes, and such purchases could benefit the failing US economy. The Chinese are probably equal buffoons to the US for buying those old Russian subs they are getting.
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
IMO: You really would think that buying such microchips from people who might soon be in a war with you, is not very sensible. US made chips could be turn out to be safer in the US at least, one hopes, and such purchases could benefit the failing US economy. The Chinese are probably equal buffoons to the US for buying those old Russian subs they are getting.
# posted by uv : 9:36 AM
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