SOLVED Hardware & Software entering the U.S. preloaded w/ Malware

[TrainableMan]

U.S. official says pre-infected computer tech entering country

Confirming years of warnings from government and private security experts, a top Homeland Security official has acknowledged that computer hardware and software is already being imported to the United States preloaded with spyware and security-sabotaging components.

...

Schaffer didn't say whether the equipment he was talking about included end-user consumer tech like retail laptops, DVDs and media players. If so, his comments, first reported Friday morning by Fast Company, would be the first time the United States has publicly confirmed that foreign consumer technology is arriving in the country already loaded with nasty bugs like key-logging software, botnet components and even software designed to defeat security programs installed on the same machine.

Source Article

 

[clifford_cooley]

That is outrageous!!

 

[TrainableMan]

If you think about the cheap items sold on, for example, eBay from China & Hong Kong it makes sense that it would be terribly easy to sell low priced USB sticks, Bluetooth USB receivers, etc and embed malware including back-doors and key-loggers into the device or it's software.