Written by Liz Klimas

Researchers are alerting the appropriate officials to a recent vulnerability they have found in computer chips used in everything from aircraft to laptops that could leave them open to the exploits of hackers. There has been speculation that the “backdoor” was purposely placed in these chip while being made in China, but many experts — including the researchers who discovered the vulnerability — say this is highly unlikely.

The Guardian states the backdoor is in systems such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, drones, surveillance equipment, and other military, medical and communications products. The chip by U.S. manufacturer Actel (also going by Microsemi) — produced in China — has a loophole that Sergei Skorobogatov with Cambridge University and Chris Woods with Quo Vadis Labs say would allow the hacker to “disable all the security on the chip, reprogram cryptographic and access keys … or permanently damage the device.”

Skorobogatov and Woods... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/chinese-accused-of-hiding-backdoor-for-h...