Any evil regime will adopt bad methods that challenge human nature. Because they know that the most difficult system to break is not necessarily the computer. The easiest line of defense to break through is sometimes human nature. This is also the most difficult part to guard against that affects Taiwan’s national security.
The most vulnerable link in national security and information security is people!
If Jen-Hsun Huang's problem involves messy relationships or extramarital affairs like some big bosses in the American technology industry, it is at most a personal moral issue. But Huang Renxun is different. He masters artificial intelligence, advanced chips, and the most sensitive core technologies in global technological competition. And the most important thing is the threat from China!
According to the latest reports, Huang Renxun has admitted to being unfaithful to his wife, and Huida's board of directors has also announced an independent investigation. U.S. intelligence agencies suspect that a Chinese female corporate executive with whom he has a close relationship may have been absorbed by Chinese intelligence agencies in an attempt to collect information on advanced artificial intelligence chips and even influence U.S. chip export policies to China. Of course, these intelligence allegations have not yet been confirmed by investigation, and Huida also stated that there is currently no reason to believe that national security or company secrets have been compromised. However, the national security risks revealed by this incident are far more serious than the extramarital affair itself.
Huida CEO Huang Renxun (right) admitted to having an extramarital affair with Huang Le (left), a suspected Chinese female spy. (Picture taken from NetThunder LinkedIn post)
When I was taking classes at Goethe in Berlin, I was exposed to the history of the East German secret police "Stasi". During the Cold War, East German intelligence agencies trained so-called "Romeo spies", allowing male intelligence officers to deliberately approach female employees of West German government agencies and obtain secrets through love and intimate relationships. For these intelligence agencies, love is not love, but an intelligence tool that can be designed, manipulated and exploited. The most precious emotions of human beings can be transformed by the state machine into weapons to infiltrate others. At that time, the classmates laughed about this incident. This is human nature.
And this is exactly what is so chilling about a totalitarian system. When most people think of intelligence warfare, they may think of hackers, malicious programs, network attacks or stolen documents. But more advanced intelligence work sometimes does not require cracking the code at all, but only needs to make the person who holds the code trust someone. When trust is established, information, judgment, decision-making, and even political stance may gradually be affected. What’s even more frightening is that the person involved may not know that he has become a target of intelligence work.
The biggest warning to Taiwan from the Jen-Hsun Huang incident is not how we should comment on his marriage, but that we must re-understand the nature of national security. Taiwan's face of China's infiltration has never been just a military threat or cyber attack. Politicians, military generals, technology company executives, scholars, and even ordinary employees with key information may become targets of intelligence agencies trying to get close to them because of money, emotion, vanity, power, or interpersonal trust. The weakness of these people is not necessarily greed, it may just be loneliness, kindness, or a desire to gain understanding and recognition from others.
There is an important concept in information security: just because the person inside the system is trustworthy, it does not mean that everyone close to him is also trustworthy. This is also where zero trust architecture deserves our consideration. A truly mature safety system should not be based on the assumption that everyone can resist temptation, but should recognize the weaknesses of human nature and reduce the possible harm caused by individual mistakes through the system.
A truly mature safety system recognizes the weaknesses of human nature and uses the system to reduce the harm that may be caused by individual mistakes; diagram. (European News Agency)
I have always believed that the most difficult national security threat for Taiwan to prevent is not necessarily China’s advanced hacking technology, but its ability to target different people and find different human weaknesses. Money can bribe some people, power can seduce others, and emotions can make otherwise very rational people lose their alertness. This is not to say that there is a problem with anyone who interacts with Chinese people, but just because a personal relationship seems harmless, we cannot ignore the possible conflicts of interest and intelligence risks involved.
The most alarming thing is that technical loopholes can usually be patched through program updates, and institutional loopholes can be improved through reforms. However, human loopholes are often not discovered until they cause harm.
The security of the country cannot rest solely on the morality and self-control of important people. Because no matter how strong the chip defense is, it may not be able to withstand the moment when a person lets down his guard.
A letter from Jen-Hsun Huang to Huida employees. (Taken from the official website)
(The author is a information security scholar. This article only represents the author’s personal opinions and has nothing to do with the teaching institution.)
This article is reprinted from Li Zhongxian’s Facebook with permission
