David Sirota - The Terrorist Threat We’re Ignoring

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_terrorist_threat_were_ignoring_20110721/

According to the U.S. government, the list of known bogeymen working to compromise American national security is long, and getting longer by the day. By my back-of-the-envelope count, we have shoe bombers, underwear bombers, dirty bombers and car bombers. Now, we are being told to fear “implant bombers” who will surgically attach explosives to their innards.

All of these threats are indeed scary. But the fear of individual attacks has diverted attention from a more systemic threat of terrorists or foreign governments exploiting our economy’s penchant for job-offshoring. How? By using our corresponding reliance on imports to stitch security-compromising technology into our society’s central IT nervous system.

Sounds far-fetched, right? That’s what I thought, until I read a recent article in Fast Company. Covering a little-noticed congressional hearing, the magazine reported that a top Department of Homeland Security official “admitted on the record that electronics sold in the U.S. are being preloaded with spyware, malware, and security-compromising components.”

The process through which this happens is straightforward—and its connection to our current trade policies is obvious. First, an American company or governmental agency orders computer hardware or software from a tech company. Then, because the “free” trade era has incentivized that company to move its production facilities to low-wage countries, much of that order is actually fulfilled at foreign factories where security standards may be lacking.

More at the link --

[aquart]

1. Duh. How stupid would they be if they didn't?

[Sparkly]

2. Makes sense.

But tell it to anyone among the idiot population, and they'll react as they did when I said in 2001 we were in danger of terrorist attacks, not ICBMs. They don't believe it.

They're always afraid of the wrong things. That's how they're manipulated.

(By the way, there's no threat of economic disaster, global climate change, or biological attacks, either. It's all about the guy down the street milking the system.)

[freshwest]

3. Thank you, US Chamber of Commerce.