“through powers granted via the “EAR” (Export Administration Regulation 15 CFR, subchapter C, parts 730-774), along with a sometimes surprisingly broad definition of what qualifies as export-controlled US technology.”<p>Boom! I told people they might do that back in the crypto discussions. Custom crypto and high-assurance security are still munitions with only a few things re-classified such as mass-market, one-size-fits-all software and use of ciphers in browser (https). This is what they might do to the rest with the leverage if it was ever truly threatening. They’re already doing it to companies over Huawei.<p>I also speculated they might have done this to get backdoors in products. A combo of offering payment and threats together. We know they do the payments. I don’t know if they do export threats, though.<p>“some independent security research would have already found and published a paper on this. Given the level of fame and notoriety such a researcher would gain for finding the “smoking gun””<p>Bunny is being really naive here or maybe doesn’t understand computer espionage. Most subversion must be done in a way that doesn’t look like subversion. The system just has to be remotely exploitable. The best route to that is to intentionally leave in memory safety bugs or a configuration that enables privilege escalation. Hackers find those all the time in all kinds of devices. They say, “Hey, they just made a common mistake.” Maybe it was there on purpose. We won’t know.<p>“It’s no secret that the US has outsourced most of its electronics supply chain overseas. From the fabrication of silicon chips, to the injection molding of plastic cases, to the assembly of smartphones, it happens overseas, with several essential links going through or influenced by China.”<p>And this is why what the U.S. government is doing is incredibly stupid. You could substitute other industries in here. It’s a smarter move to minimize one’s dependency on a country before pissing that country off in a way that can prevent them getting what they depend on.