“Foxconn, the gargantuan Chinese manufacturing backend for much of the tech industry, has developed a reputation as one of the world’s largest, least ethical, and most secretive companies,” Andy Greenberg writes for Forbes. “What better target for an unknown group of hackers trying to make a name for themselves?”
“On Wednesday evening, a hacker group calling itself Swagg Security claimed that it had penetrated Foxconn’s network and later posted a six megabyte file to the filesharing site the Pirate Bay that included a dump of employees’ usernames and passwords from the company along with passwords that allowed access to several of the Foxconn’s internal servers,” Greenberg reports. “Foxconn, which serves as Apple’s chief manufacturer but also works with Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Motoroloa, Cisco, Nokia, and practically any other tech firm that owns a hardware business, has come under scrutiny recently for alleged labor abuses that include unsafe conditions, inhumanly long hours, underage employees, and a spate of worker suicides. Chief executive Terry Gou hasn’t helped his company’s image with comments like one recent public statement that compared the company’s one million employees to animals in a zoo.”
Read more in the full article here.
I work in Mexico for an american company, and if you compare my working conditions to the USA working conditions, you will be on top of this company like you are with foxcom.
But the true is that compared to Mexican companies, this is the glory, we are a lot better paid compared to mexican companies, we have other “Prestaciones” that other people working for mexican companies doesn’t have. We thank american for bringing their companies to our country, Because if you are a mexican, working for a mexican company, I bet you will be a lot worse that working for any given chinesse company… and I don’t see people protesting againtsa CEMEX, Gropo Modelo, Plastienvases, Grupo Carso, and so on.
Has anybody ever spoke with an actual Foxcom Employee? Or compared conditions in Foxcom with a 100% chinese company making chinese products? like Acer or lenovo?
You make a good point. It seems that those losers are just trying to make a name for themselves. Foxconn may not be the best, most righteous company in the world but at least Apple is holding them up to a higher standard and are under constant scrutiny and how is hacking employee information going to help? It may be actually making an employee’s situation even worse.
Hackers like Swagg Security really stand out as the filth of the tech world. Sort of like the paparazzi.
Unlike a Chinese worker at Foxconn, you are able to participate in the global dialog. I see this as being good in the world of have vs have nots, in the digital divide.
I suppose that if a Chinese Foxconn worker could communicate with us, using English, as we are so limited that we can’t communicate in any other way, either they wouldn’t be working on the floor of a Foxconn factory, or they would be working for an foreign company, such as yourself.
The problem is not in raising the employee work conditions. the problem is making the whole process fair for all companies in addition to the employees.
In the US, we fought a civil war, over unfair work conditions, IE: Slave Labor in the South vs Free paid works in the North.
If a company can manufacture using slave labor / wages, then a proper competing company which pays a living wage in the US or Western countries, can not compete. Robots are a kind of morally good slave labor too, but you can’t make iPhones with robots.
There is no good solution to date. Ultimately everything is going to cost more, and if labor unions get their way, Walmart will go the way of K-Mart.
For Americans, the whole point in shipping manufacturing over seas, is that we have moved passed the industrial age and into the information age. We are supposed to stop making bricks and start making knowledge. We get paid more for it. However education is not making scientists like they are supposed to.
Where is the vision?
BTW: I don’t have time to worry how about how this reads, as it’s deplorable, but hopefully you can understand what I am trying to say.
Danilko1
Here are few things wrong with your post
1) The US Civil War was fought due to two things
A) State Rights vs the Integrity of the United States
B After the battle of Antietam, the question of Slavery in the United States which the Emancipation proclamation tried to Address which in turn gave the North a moral excuse to defeat the South.
The work conditions of the Chinese workers in Foxconn are far superior than any slaves in the South during the Civil War and there’s also a big difference, those workers applied to work at Foxconn freely knowing the conditions, the black slaves had no such choice on the matter.
2) The pay of a Chinese worker at Foxconn is infinitely better than the pay of a similar Chinese worker working at a small village or town in China . Put it this way, A non Foxconn worker working at a Chinese farm or a regional factory gets paid the equivalent of 15 cents while a Foxconn worker gets paid with the equivalent of 75 cents day which for many poor Chinese,makes a big difference to in their decision to be able to pay for their education, rent a bigger apartment or have enough to live a comfortable life. In fact, their relatively high wages(as seen thru the lens of the Chinese economy) force other Chinese companies to increase the pay of their workers for fear they might lose them to Foxconn.
3) Actually, you can manufacture iPhones with robots, the problem is that there are few robots that can consistently manufacture iPhones in massive volume and quality. Wait for a few years and that will all change.
4) You had answered your question about everything cost more. Labor Unions. As for Walmart, they exist because there is a market for them.
5) I’m sorry but due to excessive environmental regulations, business hostile laws and ordinances, high taxes and fees and radical unions sense of entitlement with idiotic politicians egging them on, manufacturing moved overseas in order for companies to make a profit and grow. Americans are still making bricks, the problem is that the government and others are making it hard for Americans to make a single brick without going through a lot of government hoops in order start making one.
I do not dispute your post in its entirety, but your shot at labor unions is more than a bit disingenuous, IMO. Goods cost what they do for many reasons, and labor is only part of the equation. For some goods, labor is a relatively small component while, for others, it is a major component.
Some people seem to believe that eliminating labor unions will magically improve everything. But costs won’t go down unless wages and benefits are cut. And cutting wages and benefits will make those workers less able to purchase goods and services, thus impacting the health of the economy. In addition, it does not necessarily follow that prices will go down just because costs go down. In some cases, cost reductions will be used to boost profits rather than passing them down to consumers. And companies that make tremendous profits do not always reduce costs, even though their economies of scale and profit margins make it feasible to do so. Yes, Apple is a prime example.
In summary, I contest that removing labor unions would be unlikely to achieve your objectives. In addition, labor unions are part of the checks and balances in our economy that help to curb the excesses of some companies. History indicates that some companies will engage in the exploitation of labor in the absence of a deterrent. Some unions have gone overboard in their tactics and have become corrupt, themselves. But that is not a justification for the elimination of all of them, any more that the existence of corrupt corporations is justification for the elimination of all companies.
Overly simplistic solutions are seldom valid, even though they may appeal to the emotions and the lazy mind.
Plus, I dispute aspects of your contention #5. I would be interested in how you propose to solve that knot.
Where is the outcry against these hackers. They released username and passwords of these employees. They are jeopardizing the jobs of a million employees. Quite unethical if you ask me. The report reads as if they are renegade heroes.
This is 21st century, there is no justification for subhuman work conditions.
People target protests at American related companies because those are the ones they can influence, the other don’t care at all.
Deplorable work conditions contribute to competitive prices … but also to leak of jobs from US overseas … thus US workers and people should care.
Progress and civilization has always moved from highly developed towards the rest but never too fast. On the other hand toughness moves the opposite way … and ideally we have some ballance Thus chinese people will sacrifice an arm and a leg to come to US and US companies export jobs as much as they can. Foreighn work force keeps the rest of US workers nimble and on their toes. American money abroad push foreign contries towards progress and civil values.
Yes, above is very simplified but it’s a comment for havens sake.
Look, USA and USA Companies can’t go into China and tell China how to run their Country! It is really easy. Simply add huge tariffs that negate the cost advantage of having no labor laws, no environmental laws, and no enforcement of what laws they do have and artificially holding down their currency exchange rates.
Brazil did this, effectively almost doubling the price of an imported iPad. Know what, Foxconn is building plants INSIDE Brazil to make iPads. Those jobs in the USA would not all be lost if we had effective tariffs and better monetary exchange rates.
There is a better way than imposing ridiculously high tariffs alone. Done properly tariffs can help, but to really bring about a solution to the trade imbalance, we need government to stop piling more moronic laws and start pushing incentives that can bring some of those jobs back home. Declare a moratorium on Corporate Capital Gains so companies like Apple can bring their cash back into America and invest it in our own economy!
Is this true – was Foxconn hacked or was an inside job?
Swagg Security reason is was JUST to have fun and enjoy the destruction of Foxconns’ Infrastructure.
Mindless – crazy – insane waist of time.
Swagg Security,
Oh, they the BATMAN now?
“Only when embracing what society has taught you to hinder, is when you realize your own identity. Remember damage is bliss.”
Swagg Security posts on PIRATE BAY (.se) a torrent file?
CRAZY CRAP… glad they realize WHO THEY ARE.
Just immature deviant manipulating sh_t disturbers.
PRANKSTERS getting their jollies at the expense of so many others.
It will be interesting to read how much SWAGGER (confidence; is left in the talk they walk and how secure they feel with their newly found identity. ONCE caught, then all shall see WHO HAS THE LAST LAUGH.
the spy who shagged me
There are at least a couple points of view to take here:
1) Hacking is good because it points out CRAP SECURITY. (I have to wonder how Swagg Security broke in and what server software Foxconn are using. Windows? That would explain a lot. Foxconn have responsibility for their computer security. They FAILed.
2) Swagg Security are admittedly merely BERZERKERS. I consider this to be psychopathic behavior on their part. They don’t qualify as ‘hackers’. Instead they are ‘black hat’ crackers, of benefit to no one. They should be locked up as irresponsible little baby tards. 😯
Meanwhile: Long live Anonymous! I’m proud of you guys. That’s hacking I like.
Some quotes from the SwaggSec statement at pastebin
Bad spelling:
Your not gonna’ know what hit you
Bad grammar and run-on sentences:
Although we are considerably disappointed of the conditions of Foxconn, we are not hacking a corporation for such a reason and although we are slightly interested in the existence of an Iphone 5, we are not hacking for this reason.
Berzerker behavior:
…but the more prominent reason, is the hilarity that ensues when compromising and destroying an infrastructure.
Wrong in assertions:
In a way we are “hacktivist”, but in our own views we are Greyhats.
Lame philosophers:
Only when embracing what society has taught you to hinder, is when you realize your own identity. . . . Remember damage is bliss.
IOW, it’s more of the same old doublethink duckspeak:
Hate is love.
War is peace.
Slavery is freedom.
Ignorance is bliss.
Black is white.
… the usual.