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National Security Determination Threat Posed by Foreign-Produced Robotic Devices [pdf]

https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/robots-nsd.pdf
33•ellingsworth•1h ago

Comments

AIorNot•46m ago
Say goodbye to robots just like EVs

Thanks Trump

grosswait•23m ago
How do you think a responsible administration, members of your party of choice, would differ on this matter? Or EVs?
bix6•15m ago
Maybe by not being the most blatantly corrupt assholes of all time?
mapontosevenths•5m ago
Perhaps by thinking more than zero steps ahead.

An administration filled with people who read books that don't have pictures might, for example, consider the chilling effects this anti-free market, anto-competitive nonsense will have on our economy and the economies of our allies.

They might even consider two steps into the very near future and realize that the last nations to automate will become the poorest nations almost overnight, and be forced to watch as the price of good declines for the entire world except their shifty, isolated, tariffed, backwater.

Heck, such and administration might even have a few scientists and economists left employed who could advise them, having not just forced many of the best and brightest to flee to more enlightened parts of the world just to stay employed or live in a places that don't treat inconvenient truths as blasphemy.

tw1984•42m ago
it is a real threat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xha2TJ_1C6Q

nexus6•14m ago
Very cool, but video looks accelerated and something about the robot shading/lighting gives it a rendered feel.
gowld•12m ago
That video clearly states that they have always placed great emphasis on product safety and information security, and that they kindly request that all users refrain from making dangerous modifications or using the robot in a hazardous manner.
Georgelemental•41m ago
> In response to this threat, the White House convened an executive branch interagency body with appropriate national security expertise, see 47 U.S.C. § 1601(c)(1), comprising agencies that included appropriate national security agencies, id. § 1601(c)(4), which determined jointly and severally that: All foreign-produced advanced robotic devices pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and to the safety and security of U.S. persons and should be included on the FCC’s Covered List, unless the Department of War (DOW) transmits to the FCC a specific determination that a given foreign-produced advanced robotic device, or a class of such devices, does not pose such risks. The interagency group and the agencies comprising it determined that foreign-produced advanced robotic devices presented the specific unacceptable risks of (a) posing a supply chain vulnerability that could disrupt U.S. economic and national security, and (b) creating a cybersecurity risk that threatens the security of critical infrastructure and thus the safety and security of U.S. persons.

>

> To facilitate this transition period, entities that produce advanced robotic devices in a foreign country are encouraged to apply for Conditional Approvals (Annex A) which, if approved, will allow such producers to continue to receive FCC authorization for their products while they work to onshore manufacturing and address the U.S. government’s national security concerns described above.

randusername•34m ago
I have to point out how deeply unserious it is that the following line...

> As the technology matures, advanced robotic devices have growing use cases in monitoring and securing critical infrastructure.

...cites:

'Secret Service uses robot dogs to guard Trump's Mar-a-Lago in FL' as reported in the Palm Beach Daily News

LoganDark•32m ago
This makes me wonder if we've ever had any evidence that "onshore manufacturing" prevents or even lessens foreign backdoors or security vulnerabilities. Honestly, to me it seems like onshore manufacturers are generally far more clueless than they have any right to be, so it's highly unlikely that they could both write materially better code and act as any meaningful barrier to internal compromise.
cingraa•24m ago
"foreign backdoors" and "security vulnerabilities". Both are an worn-out excuse, not some real concern.

Gaslighting as a policy.

Lendal•31m ago
The irony is this will harm US manufacturing, not help it. Manufacturing is the sector that most depends on robotics. Companies will now have to sue the administration so they can continue operations without this new regulatory hindrance. I thought this president was supposed to eliminate regulations, not impose newer and stupider ones.
logicchains•20m ago
It will harm it even more by not subjecting it to competition, so it becomes bloated and uncompetitive like the US car and shipbuilding industries.
mapontosevenths•18m ago
Sure, our technology is worse, but at least it's expensive.
kotaKat•9m ago
This is just a false-flag campaign planted by the UAW to ensure the slovenly can keep their jobs another couple years instead of actually be held to task for poor American manufacturing build quality. ;)
anticorporate•4m ago
When you can't blame the machines, pretend the workers on the lowest rungs are machines and blame them instead.
999900000999•5m ago
America doesn’t know how to do anything well aside from manipulate imaginary numbers.

Companies buying themselves over and over again.

How much of our so called economy is just moving money back and forth…

passwordoops•26m ago
Amazingly ironic that the administration most deeply in bed to the finance sector's bidding is now identifying the result of the finance sector's 50 year push to offshore everything a problem for National security
gowld•16m ago
Is your definition of "finance sector" "everyone who likes money"?
hn_submit•23m ago
Why doesn't the U.S. simply ban all Chinese products that have an internet-connected computer in them? That would solve almost all security problems in one strike and force Chinese manufacturers to communicate via Bluetooth and update software through USB sticks or memory cards.

The apps communicating with said devices through Bluetooth obviously can't connect to the internet either otherwise there'd still be an avenue for subversion.

Just banning one Chinese product category at a time willy nilly doesn't help as there are a zillion other product categories of Chinese stuff with internet connections. From toys (with camera's in them), to refrigerators, power converters, microwaves, televisions to smartphones.

petesergeant•20m ago
Why does Ross, the largest Friend, not simply eat the other five?
eej71•17m ago
While that seems helpful it would not be enough. Consider this as a counter example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Olympic_Games

bsenftner•17m ago
Going one at a time, in small apparently myopic focus is how a politician shakes the lobbyist money tree. "You could be next!"
revolvingthrow•23m ago
Ah, the newly popular "let's make the policy unusually broad and treat all foreign production as presumptively dangerous, regardless of country, manufacturer or security practices, this way we're more transparent about prioritizing a bribe rather than our stated concerns".

> Advanced robotic devices are inherently networked systems which creates broad attack surfaces and leaves them vulnerable to data exfiltration, remote disruption of the physical robot, and dependencies on unsecure over the air updates.

Good thing this isn't a concern in ones produced locally.

bix6•14m ago
Why does department of defense, excuse me I mean the illegally named department of war aka cosplayer Hegseth’s wet dream, get put in charge of this? They are properly staffed to review thousands of robots? Hahaha.
brookst•9m ago
They can take bribes as effectively as any other department. Actual review of robots is presumably out of scope.
hgoel•9m ago
The true intention of all of these seems to mostly be to give the government justification to pick winners and losers. Anyone that bends the knee gets their carveout or special exception, anyone that doesn't gets hit with all sorts of restrictions on top of the randomly applied tariffs.

It seems like the way to get Americans to embrace a centrally planned economy was to combine unashamed xenophobia with blatant corruption.

tancop•7m ago
i got a better solution. make open firmware and user flashing mandatory. if anyone can inspect the code for backdoors and replace it with brand new software then any security issues go out the window.

should apply to domestic products too for good measure.

godwinson__4-8•6m ago
By sue you mean bribe to get an exception, correct?
diego_moita•5m ago
In the 80s Brazil went that same path. They made a law forbidding everyone from importing computers. The idea was to "develop a national computer industry".

They created a monstrosity. The Brazilian made computers were always one generation behind the foreign ones (AT 286 was a "new" thing when every country was going into 386) and would cost 3 times more. Computers smuggled from Paraguay were everywhere, even I smuggled some.

The IT industry in Brazil became a cartel dominated by few companies. They'd pirate everything from the Americans, even DOS and all BIOS and firmware. Their computers' mainboards were ugly, hacked and defect prone. But they would give buckets of money to the military controlling the government and the corrupt politicians in Congress. The 80s became known as the "lost decade" because of the low growth induced by this policy.

This dumb idea expired in 1992.

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National Security Determination Threat Posed by Foreign-Produced Robotic Devices [pdf]

https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/robots-nsd.pdf
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