US diplomats alerted over Chinese computers

Oh dear oh dear.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/20/wlenovo20.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/20/ixnews.html

American diplomats have been instructed not to keep classified material on 16,000 newly purchased computers because the manufacturer is partly-owned by the Chinese government.

Richard Griffin, the assistant secretary of state, told Congress he would ensure that the machines did not "compromise our information and communication channels".

The row erupted when a congressman raised questions about the purchase of machines from Lenovo, the world's third biggest personal computer maker. The company is 28 per cent owned by a state-controlled Chinese entity.

At least 900 of the computers were to be used by diplomats at embassies around the world and would have been used to access classified material.

Would those perchance be IBM "think pads"?

Aside from Big Blue now being pretty red, this is interesting in that the story indicates that the machines could be used to spy on the diplomats.

Is this simple paranoia? Or, is there more to this?

Peace.

Much as it was over DP World's attempts to buy up a few US ports not too long ago. Mind you, maybe some of you more knowledgeable about IT may be able to inform us about how a part owner of a computer firm can sneak in sneaky stuff into a computer that the US government would have difficulty detecting.