US security policies for IT executives traveling to China

Apparently, the US Government doesn’t want to take any risks. According to CRN and Mark Bregman, CTO at Symantec, they look with suspicion on everything that comes from China – especially code.

Among the measures it recommends to IT executives regarding the protection of their computer equipment when traveling to that country are:

• Leave your standard IT equipment at home – buy separate gear to use in China
• Weigh the machine before you go and when you get back
• “Clean” thoroughly the equipment (re-image the laptop you used)
• Throw away the mobile phone you used during your stay.

The US is also very concerned about malicious code – they don’t want to have anything to do with Chinese coders and they don’t trust companies that do their development in China. Bregman thinks this is the wrong attitude – US developers can be as dangerous as the Chinese and the Government should check the tools and processes to test code from wherever it comes.