Could a Chinese-made Metro car spy on us? Many experts say yes.

[Zorro]

The warnings sound like the plot of a Hollywood spy thriller: The Chinese hide malware in a Metro rail car’s security camera system that allows surveillance of Pentagon or White House officials as they ride the Blue Line — sending images back to Beijing.

Or sensors on the train secretly record the officials’ conversations. Or a flaw in the software that controls the train — inserted during the manufacturing process — allows it to be hacked by foreign agents or terrorists to cause a crash.

Congress, the Pentagon and industry experts have taken the warnings seriously, and now Metro will do the same. The transit agency recently decided to add cybersecurity safeguards to specifications for a contract it will award later this year for its next-generation rail cars following warnings that China’s state-owned rail car manufacturer could win the deal by undercutting other bidders.

Metro’s move to modify its bid specifications after they had been issued comes amid China’s push to dominate the multibillion-dollar U.S. transit rail car market. The state-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corp., or CRRC, has used bargain prices to win four of five large U.S. transit rail car contracts awarded since 2014. The company is expected to be a strong contender for a Metro contract likely to exceed $1 billion for between 256 and 800 of the agency’s newest series of rail cars.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/could-a-chinese-made-metro-car-spy-on-us-many-experts-say-yes/2019/01/07/00304b2c-03c9-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html

[Sherman A1]

1. Begging the question....

Why was it necessary to buy these from China?

[Zorro]

2. Price. It's a competition.

[dogman]

4. This Chinese corporation is building them in the US.

They just built a new $100 million factory in Chicago.

[TheFarseer]

5. Better than

Let’s say Ford winning the contract and making them in let’s say China.

[NightWatcher]

3. I was reading about 5G and the amount of speed, data, and nonexistent latency that it will bring.

and how China is progressing at a rapid pace in its development. It will be 10-1000 times faster than cell today, the amount of data it will be able to transfer is unbelievable, and there will be no latency. It will be instantaneous. People will become nothing more than data originators and have everything they do analyzed faster than the speed of a flash on a camera.

The second you walk into one of these rail cars your data will be mined and algorithms will know what you are going to do before you know. It will be impossible to keep yourself out of the flow of this information revolution.

China is eating our lunch on this next stage in communication.