Chinese company wants to buy Seagate, American government worried
We’re all for protecting our national interests, but these concerns seem a bit out of line. The New York Times is reporting that an unidentified Chinese company is gearing up to make a bid for American hard drive manufacturer Seagate. The potential bid was disclosed by Seagate’s CEO as part of a larger effort to address general security concerns regarding the potential acquisition.The US government is a bit unsettled by the possibility of a Chinese company manufacturing a large percentage of the world’s digital storage devices. As William D. Watkins, CEO of Seagate put it, “The U.S. government is freaking out.” They seem to be up in arms over the potential for some sort of secret data mining possibilities. As such, they’re investigating the legality of such a deal. As we said, national security concerns are of the utmost importance, but this concern strikes us as just a bit overboard. What do you think?
Next theyl be making tampons to control our women!
Permalink | Reply
This is funny. This they worry about, but had no problems letting Arab’s control some of the most important ports in the U.S. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/21/port.security/
This is laughable at best!!
Permalink | Reply
Let’s not start getting political.
Permalink | Reply
Something that’s lost on our government is that the Chinese are strategists. They play hard and are in for the long haul. We think in terms of, (at best) a “five year plan”, they think in terms of the next several generations.
What’s laughable is that supposedly just because we have “invented consumerism and capitalism, doesn’t mean we can’t be beaten at our own “game”.
Right now their economy is expanding like no tomorrow… and ours… isn’t. Not so long ago it was “US” making the rules, in the future we may be “owned” by China.
Realisticly, we already are… Look at our national debt, look at the balance of trade, look at who owns the most “T” bills. Tomorrow, if China called in all it’s debt to the US, we’d be utterly “screwed”.
The “world” is takeing “US” over, a dollar at a time. The “government” should “wake up and smell the coffee…” but wait…. that’s from Columbia…fancy that.
Permalink | Reply
How can somebody comment on this and NOT get political!! The whole motive here with the American government is political!!
Permalink | Reply
idon’tt hink it policical as smuch as it is quality control. they berk in a day or explode cuse ther shoddy contain lead an murcury
Permalink | Reply
It’s not too far out there to think that this could be a security problem for the U.S. government and also for the average person who has a storage device manufactured by a foreign company controlled by a foreign government (as every company in China is) that is the U.S.’s biggest rival economically and soon militarily.
With the advent of firmware level root kits and other hacking techniques it is a very real possibility that the storage devices manufactured by a Chinese owned company could be used for data mining and data leakage.
Permalink | Reply
yeah, now we can get some lead paint in our hard drives.
its a political post so political comments are fair game in here. its a legitimate concern, not a big one in my opinion but it is worth looking into.
Permalink | Reply
So it’s not a problem to own companies around the world and to exploit workers in Asia, but to have a chinese company owning Seagate (which is a non-government company, so much for economic independence) is a big deal?
Hey, US government, it’s called globalisation and capitalism… You made it and you can’t run from it.
Permalink | Reply
Sorry, but when ever the goverment is involved its political. I don’t think it can be about quality control either. We have tainted dog food coming over here killing dogs and toys made overseas that cause choking hazards Its not about quality, its about paranoia. Why stop at hard drives. Lets stop foreign car makers. Who knows what plot they may have to spy on our driving habits
Permalink | Reply
We absolutely should be questioning this. I have many friends in the security field (national that is) and from what they tell me the Chinese are already tapped into MS and specifically Office. The companies working in DC won’t use MS OS based computers anymore and they only use Pages for word processing, because as they tell me, the application is not secure. It would be quite easy for a Chinese manufacturer to add a small bit of code to drives that would send data back to the motherland when attached to an internet enabled computer.
Permalink | Reply
I happen to work in the industry and the government’s fears surrounding wafer fabrication processes are well substantiated.
Current regulation does not allow US manufacturers to export these fabrication processes overseas.
I doubt this deal would ever get approval.
Permalink | Reply
No Deal. How can you trust these commie bastards. They copy, forge and steal US technology and its about time we put an end to it. If Seagate wants to sell they must find another buyer.
Permalink | Reply
If you think this would in any way affect the piracy then you have no clue. this is strictly a National Security Issue, nothing else. The name calling belongs back in the ’50s, they are not your father’s communists.
The piracy is bad but the only ones who are going to stop it is the Chinese themselves.
Permalink | Reply
I’m in agreement with rospaya - the US can’t have it both ways. The US Gov can’t go changing the rules of capitalism and the ‘free market’ whenever it suits it. Well, okay, it does, often, to the disadvantage of everyone else on the planet.
As for data mining from hard drives… C’mon, don’t be so paranoid. What do you have that’s so interesting to read? If you do have sensitive information you should take steps to encrypt it. Half the world’s gadgets are already made in China - if the country really wanted to syphon off information it’s had plenty of opportunities. Or maybe it already does… OOOOOOOOH SPOOKY!!!!
Permalink | Reply
Anyone who has a small knowledge of computers knows how easy and how detrimental it would be for china to put enbedded viruses and spyware on a hard drive at the factory . This is a well placed concern for the usa. Anyone who thinks the govt is just paranoid is quite naive
Permalink | Reply