And there's an additional Trump family connection.
, federal authorities have quietly been digging into Bitmain, the Beijing-based bitcoin mining hardware manufacturing giant, over fears that its devices could serve as a backdoor for Chinese espionage or even deliberate blackouts on the U.
S. electrical grid. The Department of Homeland Security is said to have been running a secretive probe dubbed “Operation Red Sunset” for months, with agents tearing apart imported machines at ports in search of hidden kill switches or remote-access tricks. The worry is these application-specific integrated circuit bitcoin mining computers, which are often deployed in massive data centers near energy hot spots that double as sites for military bases, could theoretically be flipped from afar to spy on sensitive areas or trigger chaos in critical infrastructure.this summer about “disturbing vulnerabilities” in gear that might let Beijing pull strings remotely. Bitmain, for its part, is calling the whole thing nonsense, insisting there’s zero way to control itsOf course, fears of Beijing slipping backdoors into hardware have been prevalent for over a decade, with claims ranging from People’s Liberation Army operativesof undocumented cellular modems lurking inside Chinese solar inverters sold across Europe and the U.S., quietly pinging home even when powered off, prompting frantic teardowns and emergency firmware nukes. That said, hard proof of intentional state-level sabotage oftentimes remains murky .The Bitmain investigation is also interesting from the perspective of the Trump family’s seemingly-endless involvement in the crypto industry. Eric and Don Jr. are knee-deep in a mining outfit called American Bitcoin, and In August, the company snapped up 16,000 Bitmain devices in a $314 million deal. Of all the Trumpworld crypto plays, this one at least looks like straightforward mining rather than the pump-and-dump grifting or decentralization theater that is common in the industry more generally. Other controversial crypto operations involving the Trump family includeDespite the potentially-cleaner optics of operating a business that simply mines bitcoin, one has to wonder: How deep will a national security review of Bitmain go when the president’s kids are literally powering their operation with hardware from the company?It’s also notable that Bitmain has already been accused of having backdoors in their hardware during Bitcoin’s “block size wars” around 2017, when the community was tearing itself apart over how to scale the network. Pretty much the entire developer ecosystem and most users were rallying behind the Segregated Witness proposal; however, activation of this upgrade required 95% of miners to signal support. Bitmain, whose AntPool controlled a massive chunk of hashrate, was a major holdout in SegWit’s activation, as co-founder Jihan Wu pushed hard for a controversial hard fork to just jack up the block size instead, a move that risked splitting the chain and that the broader ecosystem largely rejected.that Bitmain wasn’t just ideologically opposed to SegWit eventually came out, as they were allegedly protecting a secret sauce called covert ASICBOOST, a sneaky optimization baked into their Antminer hardware that exploited a quirk in Bitcoin’s proof-of-work to shave up to 30% off mining costs. It turned out that SegWit would kill that potential advantage. Bitmain claimed this was a smear campaign, but the damage was done: it looked like the world’s dominant miner was willing to hold the network progress hostage for a competitive edge. SegWit would eventually find its way into Bitcoin without an attached hard-forking increase of the block size limit., which was a “feature” in Antminer firmware that let the company remotely shut down mining rigs. Bitmain claimed this backdoor was not added maliciously and eventually removed it. are still out there in the ether, and theshows some Bitcoin users are willing to adopt software that potentially opens the door to concepts that aren’t completely dissimilar.Search Epstein’s Emails in the Most Unnerving Way Possible
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Children and staff reportedly abducted in latest attack on Nigerian schoolThe incident occurred before dawn, around 2 a.m. local time, officials said.
Read more »
The End Of Legacy Security: Why Identity Is The New FirewallIdentity is no longer a secondary component of security; it is the security infrastructure.
Read more »
Borussia Dortmund Player Reportedly Dreams of Playing for Liverpool or Real MadridA report in Germany has suggested that one Borussia Dortmund player wants to play for either Liverpool or Real Madrid.
Read more »
Lawsuit Filed Against Trump Administration Over Migrant Fines; Homeland Security Secretary Noem InvolvedA lawsuit was filed against the Trump administration regarding hefty fines imposed on migrants for illegal stays in the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's involvement with security and immigration policies is highlighted, along with mentions of a wrongful death lawsuit and other local incidents like drug-related arrests and flooding.
Read more »
Katie Britt reportedly lobbying Trump to extend Obamacare subsidiesTheir expiration will result in premiums doubling and more than 130,000 Alabamians losing access to health care.
Read more »
Charlie Kirk's Security Chief Accuses UVU Police of Security Lapses Before AssassinationBrian Harpole, Charlie Kirk's security chief, alleges that the Utah Valley University Police Department failed to secure campus rooftops despite assurances, raising concerns about security failures leading up to the assassination. He claims warnings were ignored and communication was lacking.
Read more »