I would rather have a device with zero back doors, obviously.
But given that my present choice can only be between devices that are backdoored by the intelligence services of democratic nations with strong rule of law, or authoritarian regimes, and there is no third option, the choice is clear.
if you are a regular person of no interest for politicians, your been choice is a backdoor from the least influential agency
so if you are Chinese you better stick with American security, if you are American you might consider chinese/Russian security etc
Re:Zhaoxin KaiXian x86 CPU Tested
by BelenusMordred on Saturday January 02, 2021 @03:00AM
(#25611191)
Given the choice should a western civil rights activist or whistleblower prefer a device "backdoored by the intelligence services of democratic nations" or one backdoored by despots perpetually at odds with the west?
Even a slight glance at modern history will quickly tell you what would be in the best interest of these heroes.
China's draconian laws can't touch me unless I leave the soil of this authoritarian democracy, which I'm quite critical of and has a long history of persecution. To tell the truth, I prefer Chinese backdoors to domestic ones -- as China will be reluctant to share keys to those backdoors with the government that has physical access to me.
China's security services have no qualms about extorting foreigners on foreign soil. You don't know how you're vulnerable.
Re:Zhaoxin KaiXian x86 CPU Tested
by colejohnson66 on Friday January 01, 2021 @10:23PM
(#25610080)
If China is able to snatch me up off US soil, that’d be quite an achievement.
Not really. Once something is backdoored by X, it can be accessed not only by X, but also by anyone who managed to hack into X. This is one of the main objections against adding backdoors (no matter how they are named, a backdoor doesn't stop being a backdoor just because you named it a "front door") to cryptographic protocols; even if you try to somehow make it so only "good guys" can use the backdoor, the "good guys" can be compromised (through technical or social means) by the "bad guys".
As an example, many telephony systems around the world have backdoors meant to be used only by local police. In a well-known case in Europe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_wiretapping_case_2004%E2...), these backdoors were exploited by agents of a foreign country.