Fishy Sounding Report about US Govt. Advising IT Execs Visiting China

Have you ever read an article from what appears to be a reliable source of news and wonder if it is a hoax? Here’s one that’s puzzling me from CRN Australia…

Safety first for IT executives in China

The report says that: Senior executives in US IT companies have been advised by the US Government to follow extremely strict policies for visits to China which extend far beyond standard software protection. These polices including buying notebook computers that are only used in China and not while in the U.S. and throwing away phones after returning from China. Here’s what puzzles me…

- Why is this being reported in an Australian publication?
- The article mentions “senior executives” (plural) being advised by the US Government. Only one executive (Symantec CTO Mark Bregmam) is quoted
- And, who in the US Government is doing the advising? The State Department, Homeland Security, one of the three-letter agencies?
- And why would Bregman, the CTO of a large well-known cyber-security company be caught saying something like this as a quote: However, he said he was “pretty relaxed” when it came to following the security policies. “I don’t let my IT department near my laptop,” he said.

The story sounds plausible. But, things don’t seem to add up.

Via Geek.com

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