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Comment by y-c-o-m-b | Hacker News Reader

Define "hostile to users" a bit more. Chinese devices recklessly place rando back-doors into things, opening up them up to everyone and their mother. Average consumer router firmware? Compromised. They swallow up any and all information they can get their hands on and operate scam centers where they can utilize the info to blackmail people. Israel seems to have a more targeted approach, albeit there is definitely a blast radius. I'm not sure I can say any one country is worse than the other when it comes to cybersecurity. That includes: USA, Iran, North Korea, China, Israel, Russia etc. They all put consumers at risk; whether it's immediate or down the line when the exploits are revealed and other bad actors (scammers) are able to leverage them. It's a lose-lose for us either way.

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> Define "hostile to users" a bit more.

They use this software to find and kill people. Which they then publicly brag about. How much more hostile do you want to be?

> How much more hostile do you want to be?

There is no limit. The request is not coming from genuine curiosity — they are asking for a stricter definition so that they can attack any one that you provide, no matter how sensible. The befuddlement is deliberate.

Incorrect. I was genuinely curious and the person you responded to even proves my point in needing clarification because they're referring to an intentional "enemy" (which is relative here), but my understanding of OP's "users" is the average consumer like you or I. That's why I asked what the definition of "hostile to users" is here because hostile to a specific military or organizational target (like Israeli compromised devices do) is not the same as hostile to Frank sitting in a cubicle in Wisconsin (like Chinese compromised devices do).

EDIT: I looked at your comment history and it's full of snarky comments like the one you made here. You're either trolling or you lack a serious self-awareness in your contributions to this platform. Maybe time to step back and examine if it's worth even being on here if you can't control your emotions and have a civil conversation instead of these virtual drive-by shootings where you don't even engage with the actual person you're commenting about. This is not Reddit.

> Define "hostile to users" a bit more

Exploding pagers. Israel literally killed people with consumer tech.

I would also love this clarification, because not trusting an Israeli company is one thing, but with China, you're choosing to trust a government that is decades-old at being untrustworthy, not just a company. And whether or not the Israeli government can persuade a company to work with them notwithstanding, it's a known out truth that the Chinese government is in the business of its businesses.

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