IBM’s China connection and the betrayal of America: how Chinese government hackers manage to remain undetectable

“You know, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way. Because I’ll tell you what: No computer is safe (…) I don’t care what they say.”

President-Elect Donald Trump

In the waning days of the fading Obama presidency, plenty of questions surfaced about Russia’s involvement with the hacks of the DNC and election systems. Electronic evidence can be easily manipulated.

There is more to it than just electronic evidence.

IBM has systematically betrayed America by selling US technology vital to the national security of its home nation to China:

STEP 1: The Chinese manufacturer Lenovo was able to acquire IBM’s PC division in a fire sale, for pennies on the Dollar, in 2004,

STEP 2: Lenovo then acquired IBM’s Server division, also in a fire sale, for pennies on the Dollar, in 2014.

Through these two acquisitions, China obtained valuable know-how related to Intel’s x86 architecture including Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT), an undetectable backdoor which presents a national security risk for the United States. This knowledge allows the Chinese government to hack into any computer using the Intel x86 architecture and **remain undetected**. The technology was designed as Intel’s own backdoor for maintenance, but it can be misused for malicious activities. It gives China on-demand access to any U.S. cloud or U.S. data center running on Intel x86.

IBM has also betrayed America on at least one other occasion:

STEP 3: IBM gave away the POWER technology to China through an illicit backdoor deal (please see [1] below). To cover its tracks, IBM used an open source initiative, OpenPOWER Foundation, as a smoke screen for what could be otherwise seen as treason.

The results of these actions are far-reaching. They also pose a long-term danger to the United States on several fronts.

THE RESULTS AND THE DANGER THEY POSE TO THE UNITED STATES

In a nutshell: The Chinese government can hack into any US clouds, any U.S. data centers and most mainframes while remaining totally **undetectable**.

The Russians are being used as scapegoats.

Undetectable hacking capabilities on Intel x86 systems

Through its front Lenovo, the Chinese government has the capability to hack into all systems running Intel’s market-leading x86 architecture — including AWS GovCloud, the private cloud of the Central Intelligence Agency — and remain undetected.

Intrusion capabilities within the U.S. financial system

With Lenovo’s technology acquired from IBM, China can hack into all POWER-based Mainframes. These systems run America’s financial institutions (including American Express, Citi Group and others), insurance companies, stock markets, etc. They are all vulnerable.

Cryptographic superiority

China has an enviable ability to decode any data, even very strongly encrypted, for example prerecorded communications. America’s secrets are no longer secret. The Chinese have declared open season on both the U.S. federal government and the public sector, including defense.

It’s that bleak!

In theory, Intel’s ME firmware is cryptographically protected with RSA 2048, but unfortunately this is just a walk in the park for China’s top-of-the-list supercomputers:

#1 supercomputer in the world (China): 93,01 TFlops/s (National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, China)
#2 supercomputer in the world (China): 33,86 TFlops/s (National Super Computer Center in Guangzhou, China).
#3 and #4 supercomputers in the world (U.S. Dep. Of Energy): it pale by comparison: 17,59 TFlops/s and 17,13 TFlop/s, respectively

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

[1] “IBM Venture With China Stirs Concerns”, NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/business/ibm-project-in-china-raises-us-concerns.html?_r=0)

and through the shady OpenPOWER Foundation.

Clandestine cyber warfare

In the waning days of the fading Obama presidency, plenty of questions surfaced about the identity of the DNC hackers. Given that former President Obama has been less than supportive of a smooth transition it is certainly worth investigating whether Russia is really the culprit. There is another global player a lot more invested in it: China.

With the Strategic Support Force, China has not only the motive but also the means for clandestine cyberwarfare. The creation of the Strategic Support Force (戰略支援部隊; SSF) by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) (https://international.thenewslens.com/article/58081) certainly points to an aggressive attitude towards the U.S.

While China is the most dangerous rival of the United States, IBM is the most dangerous company right on American soil, the enemy on the inside. IBM was instrumental in establishing China as the No. 1 nation in supercomputing.

The Timeline of Treason

From the initial rise of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany back in the early 1930s through the dark days of WWII (1939-1945), German Nazis had a devilish accomplice: IBM Corporation.

IBM delivered the technology that was used to annihilate 6 million Jews and nearly handed the Nazis a victory over the Allied Forces. It was close, way too close!

1. [WWII]: IBM & “The Death’s Calculator”

In “IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation”, Edwin Black details IBM’s involvement with Nazi Germany.

Some may argue that this was the “old IBM”. The “new IBM” has supposedly remorsefully parted with its evil ways. Fast forward from WWII to December 8th, 2004 for a reality check.

2. [2004]: The beginning of IBM’s technology sellout to China

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6666170/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/ibm-sells-pc-business-chinas-lenovo/

IBM’s CEO Samuel J. Palmisano sold technology that was vital to the national security of the United States to China-owned Lenovo in a landmark deal valued at $1.75 billion (in other words: for pennies on the Dollar). This has nothing to do with a “free market”. It’s treason.

The acquisition by Lenovo (with the backing of the communist state China) should have raised alarm bells immediately. The US is a global superpower whose national security rides on its ability to maintain an edge in technology. Since the IBM selling frenzy, this is no longer the case.

Some observers argued that it was “just” the PC division. This argument soon became obsolete with Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s server division in 2014 at a fire sale in which no other company was invited to bid.

3. [2013]: IBM’s Betrayal in Plain Sight: The OpenPOWER Foundation gives its technology away

Adding insult to injury, IBM made a deal to open its POWER architecture to China.

In its frantic attempts to transfer its technology to China, IBM decided to “open source” its POWER architecture in the OpenPOWER Foundation. The result was a one-way technology transfer to China with zero scrutiny. The POWER architecture is used in the United States mainly in the financial services sector, insurance and defense.

Even the biased left-wingers like the New York Times grasped that there is something afoul in a report titled “IBM Venture With China Stirs Concerns“.

—QUOTE—

“In the past 16 months, IBM has agreed — and received permission under United States export laws — to provide the Beijing company, Teamsun, with a partial blueprint of its higher-end servers and the software that runs on them, according to IBM announcements and filings from Teamsun.”

(…) “The goal is to create [in China!!!- remark added] a domestic tech industry that in the long run will no longer need to buy American products, thus avoiding security concerns.”

—END of quote—

4. [2014]: Lenovo Set to Close Acquisition of IBM’s x86 Server Division

Here’s the news from the horse’s mouth.

The most crucial element of this acquisition is Intel’s closely guarded secret that IBM was privy to (and so is now China): Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT).

Intel x86s hides another CPU that can take over your machine (you can’t audit it)

Intel x86s hide another CPU that can take over your machine (you can’t audit it)

Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s X86 server division has nothing to do with free markets. Instead, it’s all about mis-using technology to bully other nations. Just look at how arrogant China behaves in the South China Sea and you immediately know what’s all about. The acquisition has also nothing to do with strengthening Lenovo’s position as a global, diversified tech leader… that’s just a smoke screen.

Each of the above steps (Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s PC division in 2004, the OpenPOWER Foundation and Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s Server division in 2014) were orchestrated by IBM to systematically weaken the United States and strengthen the Strategic Support Force (戰略支援部隊; SSF) run by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is controlled by the Chinese government.

In plain words, IBM betrayed the US four times already (1933-45, 2004, 2013 and 2014). IBM allowed the Chinese state to undermine the technological leadership of the US. It’s a betrayal of America.

Cybersecurity implications of Intel’s Active Management Technology in Chinese hands

Cybersecurity is one of the least understood fields in modern technology, because there is no golden bullet you can use to solve the problem in one step. Cybersecurity is comprised of a huge collection of individual challenges, which happen to be tightly intertwined. Dotting all i’s and crossing all t’s crossed with even one single exception still leaves you vulnerable.

—Quote [https://boingboing.net/2016/06/15/intel-x86-processors-ship-with.htm]—

“On some chipsets, the firmware running on the ME implements a system called Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT). This is entirely transparent to the operating system, which means that this extra computer can do its job regardless of which operating system is installed and running on the main CPU.

The purpose of AMT is to provide a way to manage computers remotely (this is similar to an older system called “Intelligent Platform Management Interface” or IPMI, but more powerful). To achieve this task, the ME is capable of accessing any memory region without the main x86 CPU knowing about the existence of these accesses. It also runs a TCP/IP server on your network interface and packets entering and leaving your machine on certain ports bypass any firewall running on your system.

While AMT can be a great value-add, it has several troubling disadvantages. ME is classified by security researchers as “Ring -3”. Rings of security can be defined as layers of security that affect particular parts of a system, with a smaller ring number corresponding to an area closer to the hardware. For example, Ring 3 threats are defined as security threats that manifest in “user space” mode. Ring 0 threats occur in “kernel” level, Ring -1 threats occur in a “hypervisor” level, one level lower than the kernel, while Ring -2 threats occur in a special CPU mode called “SMM” mode. SMM stands for System-Management-Mode, a special mode that Intel CPUs can be put into that runs a separately defined chunk of code. If attackers can modify the SMM code and trigger the mode, they can get arbitrary execution of code on a CPU.“

—END of quote—

What it means is that by acquiring IBM’s Intel PC and IBM’s Intel x86 Server divisions, Lenovo got its hands on all Intel PC based systems: both on-premise, in the public cloud and in private data centers.

The betrayal by IBM has many downsides for the national security and American jobs.

1st downside: China pulls the plug on U.S. technology

“The goal is to create a domestic tech industry that in the long run will no longer need to buy American products, thus avoiding security concerns.” (NY Times, April 15th 2015)

In plain English, it means that American IT companies in China get dumped and replaced by homegrown, local Chinese IT companies. This translates into a loss of revenue, a weakening of the international competitiveness of the U.S. tech industry and in the end, into heavy job losses for the American knowledge worker.

2nd downside: China gets a technological edge it did not have to pay for

China builds the world’s fastest supercomputer without U.S. chips:

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3085483/high-performance-computing/china-builds-world-s-fastest-supercomputer-without-u-s-chips.html

—QUOTE—

“China on Monday revealed its latest supercomputer, a monolithic system with 10.65 million compute cores built entirely with Chinese microprocessors. This follows a U.S. government decision last year to deny China access to Intel’s fastest microprocessors.

There is no U.S.-made system that comes close to the performance of China’s new system, the Sunway TaihuLight. Its theoretical peak performance is 124.5 petaflops, according to the latest biannual release today of the world’s Top500 supercomputers. It is the first system to exceed 100 petaflops. A petaflop equals one thousand trillion (one quadrillion) sustained floating-point operations per second.

The most important thing about Sunway TaihuLight may be its microprocessors. In the past, China has relied heavily on U.S. microprocessors in building its supercomputing capacity. The world’s next fastest system, China’s Tianhe-2, which has a peak performance of 54.9 petaflops, uses Intel Xeon processors.”

—End of quote—

It’s about time someone made IBM the company, IBM’s CEOs Ginni Rometty and her predecessor Samuel J. Palmisano assume responsibility.

Recommendations for the incoming Administration:

1) Kick out IBM’s CEO Rometty from the next Presidential Tech summit. Twitter failed to deliver the “Crooked Hillary Emoji”, but that pales in comparison to treason and betrayal as is the case with IBM. After all, Twitter helped by-pass heavily biased left-wing LSM (lame stream media) and helped solidifying the #MAGA movement of President Elect Donald J. Trump.

2) On Day 1, there should be a Special Prosecutor investigating IBM’s betrayal of America.

3) Closing the OpenPOWER Foundation for committing treason and betraying America.

4) Excluding IBM from government contracts on Day 1.

5) Subpoena documents at Intel and IBM pertaining to technology transfer and the ME firmware.

—Quote: [https://boingboing.net/2016/06/15/intel-x86-processors-ship-with.html]—

“Although the ME firmware is cryptographically protected with RSA 2048, researchers have been able to exploit weaknesses in the ME firmware and take partial control of the ME on early models. This makes ME a huge security loophole, and it has been called a very powerful rootkit mechanism. Once a system is compromised by a rootkit, attackers can gain administration access and undetectably attack the computer.”

—End of quote—

In closing