Chinese hackers steal chip designs from major Dutch semiconductor company — perps lurked for over two years to steal NXP's chipmaking IP: Report
www.tomshardware.com
The full extent of the security breach is unknown.
  • rektifier@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    91·
    1 year ago

    Following the breach, NXP reportedly took measures to boost its network security. The company enhanced its monitoring systems and imposed stricter controls on data accessibility and transfer within the company.

    This is the real damage. China is establishing a surveillance culture in the west. By threatening to hack our computers, they hacked our culture instead.

    I work at a company that is doing more and more security controls and it’s sad to see the culture of openness get chipped away little by little by this.

    • clutch@lemmy.mlEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      The west innocence or sense of infallibility is a problem. People need to take air gapping of networks more seriously

  • HuddaBudda@kbin.social
    31·
    1 year ago

    However, even though it confirmed the theft of its intellectual property, NXP says that the breach did not result in material damage — saying that the data stolen is complex enough that it can’t be easily used to replicate designs. As such, the company didn’t see the need to inform the general public, reports NRC.

    Looks like China got to peak at the Dutch’s homework. However, that isn’t going to do much good if China doesn’t know how the Dutch got to that solution. However, I have no doubt it is just a matter of time and resources.

    Also, it is unclear if the information that was taken was helpful at all. I doubt they had full schematics of next gen chips lying around. It also sounds like there is another layer of security they feel hasn’t been breached. Which is good for the most part because it means the information has knowledge layers that have to be understood first for the manufacturing process.

      • HuddaBudda@kbin.social
        11·
        1 year ago

        Agreed, there is a bit of hubris in my argument

        However, I don’t think it matters either way because China has the information, so it’s more about likelihood of replication.

        Which I would say, China has the best chance of replicating that.

        But just because you copied someone else’s homework doesn’t mean you understand it, or that it was even helpful to understanding the sum of the whole.

        Don’t get me wrong, this data breach is terrible, but the only way this is a death sentence for the Dutch is if China got a 1:1 schematic and build process of the chips, including material composition.

        Which I don’t think they have.