I don't know anything about the supply chain for data center hardware, but it seems more likely that China would intercept shipments of say Cisco and Juniper gear and modify them (something the NSA has done) instead of building hardware with a backdoor in it?
When you buy a Cisco router do they provide a "chain of custody" proving it didn't come from or go through hostile countries? I understand these routers have a Secure Boot feature, but I can't imagine that'd defend against physical modifications.
If security was actually the goal, shouldn't we have a process to verify any piece of hardware; instead of just completely trusting some companies and not others?
This just feels like security theater, but I kind of get it. If the US is fighting China economically, this move makes a lot of sense.
> but it seems more likely that China would intercept shipments of say Cisco
Not sure if you have been paying attention to the stock market. Many of the companies which are up are ones who have eliminated their ties with China [0]. Cisco is one such company whose stock rose recently [1] as a result of moving from China [2].
This article is about Android software shipped from Google to Huawei. It does not mention data center hardware. (And in fact, I'm pretty sure Huawei are not even in the data center market. They supply telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics.
When you buy a Cisco router do they provide a "chain of custody" proving it didn't come from or go through hostile countries? I understand these routers have a Secure Boot feature, but I can't imagine that'd defend against physical modifications.
If security was actually the goal, shouldn't we have a process to verify any piece of hardware; instead of just completely trusting some companies and not others?
This just feels like security theater, but I kind of get it. If the US is fighting China economically, this move makes a lot of sense.