At one time, Microsoft created a custom version of Windows 10 in order to comply with and respond to the Chinese government’s concerns. There were rumors that Microsoft was slowly moving AI researchers out of China to Canada, but it’s unclear if that is what is truly going on.

Almost every device has software at its core

But what about the other technologies and hardware that you have in your firm? From switches to routers, to Wi-Fi adapters, all devices have software at their core. Reach out to your vendors and review where their key coders and support personnel are located.  Ensure that your firm has an approved hardware list and approval process in place to securely procure and deploy software throughout your organization.

In this day and age of ransomware attacks, I’d argue the only key tool you have to ensure that there aren’t stealth attackers lying at wait in your network is to review for unusual outbound internet traffic. Ensure you’ve installed additional software on both your Windows and Linux assets to assist you in investigating unusual traffic. For Windows assets in particular, Sysmon for Windows is specifically designed to monitor for process creations, network connections, and changes to file creation times.