[Cryptography] You can't trust any of your hardware

[Bear]

On Sun, 2014-08-03 at 22:28 -0400, Jerry Leichter wrote:

> USB memory
> sticks are extremely cheap and produced in the hundreds of millions. 
> No one thinks of them as active devices.  And yet ... they are.  They
> contain significant processing power running non-trivial code - and
> that code can be replaced.  

This will not get fixed until some virus or other using it to steal 
something important becomes widespread.  

That's what I really hate about the situation; in order for it to 
be worth anyone's time to fix it, someone first has to use it to 
perpetrate a major ripoff.  Which means, if the black hats don't 
pick it up and run with it and use it to actually hurt people, 
nobody ever gets a secure machine.

Meanwhile, can anybody come up with the firmware for an update-
blocking USB hub?  I have a feeling that when somebody finally 
gets around to wanting one, they'll want it yesterday.

				Bear