Expert: Electronics from China May Come with Backdoors

Richard Clarke, former head of counterterrorism in the US, made a shocking statement. He believes that the Chinese may be placing backdoors on all the electronic devices they ship to US to ensure that they can later infect them with malware.

According to Gizmodo, Clarke claims that computers, laptops, Android devices, gadgets made by Apple, and even television sets may be infected with backdoors.

He believes that this strategy allows China not only to launch cyberattacks against its enemies, but also to spy on them and steal their most valuable secrets.

“The U.S. government is involved in espionage against other governments.There’s a big difference, however, between the kind of cyberespionage the United States government does and China,” Clarke told Smithsonian Magazine.


“The U.S. government doesn’t hack its way into Airbus and give Airbus the secrets to Boeing [many believe that Chinese hackers gave Boeing secrets to Airbus]. We don’t hack our way into a Chinese computer company like Huawei and provide the secrets of Huawei technology to their American competitor Cisco.”

He also told Smithsonian that he’s certain the US is behind the Stuxnet virus, a “minor role” being attributed to Israel.

Clarke currently runs a cybersecurity company and some may argue that by making this statement he is trying to cause panic among consumers and organizations, a fact which would benefit his business.

On the other hand, he is the man that warned the United States of an Al Qaeda attack right before the 9/11 incidents. This, combined with his studies and his professional expertise, makes him someone that knows what he is talking about.

Many cybersecurity experts have rushed to blame China for attacks, sabotage and other things, but the accusations made by Clarke seem to top them all.

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