Tech Hammer

Sweden is one of the five Nordic countries.

For most people, this country is probably most famous for its Nobel Prize.

But in fact, Sweden is also a highly developed country with strong and diverse industries. Areas such as software development, microelectronics, telecommunications and photonics are also world leaders.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is even more famous around the world.

Near its capital Stockholm Olanda International Airport is the famous Kista Science City, which is known as Sweden's "Silicon Valley" and is recognized as the world's second science park after Silicon Valley in the United States.

The headquarters of Ericsson, a Swedish “national treasure” enterprise, is located in this science park.

At this time, an extremely important offline meeting was being held in the conference room on the top floor of Ericsson's headquarters. Not only executives from the headquarters, but also executives from most markets around the world were called to attend this meeting.

However, the meeting room that should have been solemn has become a noisy mess.

"The Chinese have proven the effectiveness of the turbulence algorithm! Oh my god, the effective blocking rate of DDOS has reached an astonishing over 95%! Gentlemen, please take this data seriously!"

"I don't know what the R\u0026D center is doing! But if this continues, we may very well lose the $300 million contract with Verizon that we just snatched from the Koreans!"

"The whole world knows that the future is dominated by the turbulence algorithm, but now we have gained nothing! Do you know that China's cloud service providers have begun to lay out a huge security system based on this algorithm, which is worrying."

"Perhaps there is something even more troublesome. According to reliable information, Huawei has begun to design network equipment with turbulence algorithm chips to protect network security from the hardware layer. They have begun to contact WindTre. If we cannot come up with a response strategy, then after the contract expires, WindTre may instead purchase Huawei's new generation wireless equipment. We will lose the entire Italian market."

…

Ken Cattell rubbed the bridge of his nose until excited expletives began to erupt in the conference room.

"Okay, complaining and cursing will not solve the problem, please be quiet!" the Ericsson president said.

The conference room finally fell silent. Ken Carter looked at the president of the Asia-Pacific region beside him this time and asked: "Okay, so Mr. Izzy, how is your contact there?"

"Huawei has applied for invention patents in all countries where its business covers two months ago. According to the public information we found, the patent owner is still the young man. We have contacted the patent owner, but the other party The reply to the email stated that Huawei has been fully authorized to handle all patent licensing matters related to turbulence algorithms."

"Huawei's conditions are still the same as before. The prerequisite is that we can speak out and help them obtain the most urgently needed products, but doing so will be very risky. As far as I know, Samsung, Cisco, HP, etc. are also working with Huawei Frequent contact, of course, but now they are like us and the negotiations are still at a stalemate."

"The problem now is that we don't know that Huawei cannot monopolize the entire market with turbulence algorithm chips. Apart from the relationship between production capacity, it will also trigger corresponding sanctions at the legislative level by various countries. After all, it will bring about the consequences of hastily occupying a dominant position in the market. The trouble will be huge. But the key to the problem is who will ultimately license this technology to and what the licensing price will be. Unfortunately, as far as the current situation is concerned, we do not have advantages compared to our competitors in many aspects."

After listening to Carl Eads's answer, Ken Cattell turned his eyes to the other side of him and looked at the company's chief technology officer.

"After our careful analysis of the source code, the assessment concluded that there are ways to bypass the patent, but there are risks. We need enough time to study those codes and find ways to avoid those risks. Of course, this is just a technical suggestion. . The legal aspect, especially when we still need the Chinese market, the legal risks that may be hidden are not among my considerations."

Ken Cattell still looked at the technical officer: "Cool, please give me an accurate time. If you encounter the worst case scenario, you don't need to consider the legal risks. We have to copy similar equipment to meet the needs of customers." Basic needs, minimum time required.”

Of course, Ken Cattell was definitely not the only one who had eyes on him at this time. The eyes of more than a dozen executives participating in the meeting were all focused on the technical officer.

Kull Cowper felt the pressure, and after hesitating for about ten seconds, he said: "About half a year!"

"I knew it." Someone raised his hands and made a helpless gesture with his palms upward.

"Oh my God! Last year we spent more than 2 billion US dollars on research and development. Did we raise a bunch of losers?"

"Half a year? I bet that if Huawei decides to cooperate with Cisco and the Koreans, half a year will be enough for them to spread communications and network equipment all over the world!"

"Okay, gentlemen, please be quiet!"

Ken Carter said with a frown.

Then he looked at his technical officer again: "Kool, half a year is too long. I don't quite understand why it takes so long when you already have the source code?"

"First of all, the source code we got is not complete, only the core part, and the extended function part needs to be supplemented. Secondly, if the core code is not thoroughly studied and copied directly, it may bring incalculable technical risks. It takes time to analyze the code .For example, we have seen many very special equations in the code. Simply put, these equations are a very special type of equations in structure, and they have fixed return values ​​after receiving specific signals."

"The existence of such equations can be understood as an algorithm testing phase to test the algorithm's responsiveness. But it may also cause systemic risks."

"Then can we just eliminate this type of equation?" someone immediately asked.

"It's not that easy to eliminate. These equations are embedded in the main function. After elimination, they may have unpredictable effects. The core code needs to be completed and tested repeatedly. And I'm just giving an example. We don't know Are there other risks in this code?"

"Wait a minute, if that's the case, since there are known risky vulnerabilities, why can't we use them to attack each other's equipment?" Someone else found the loophole in the technical officer's words.

"This has to be explained from mathematical principles, because the developer has a constant , no one has that private key! So the possible risk assessments we currently find are all based on similar situations."

"You mean, the developer may have hidden a backdoor in the source code?" Someone asked with his eyes lit up.

"It can only be said that it is possible, but there is no evidence. Moreover, there is a very interesting setting in the code, which is difficult to describe in technical language. Simply put, this is a trigger, which is used to receive the authentication code. According to the instructions After authentication, the trigger will start working and the system will be restored according to some preset commands."

"To put it more simply. Even if those equations are really backdoor programs reserved by developers, in actual use, if they are authenticated, they may lose their original effectiveness. So it is difficult to say that this can be exploited To attack the other party. Because using this technology to prevent infringement is a very complex but wonderful method. In fact, many of our engineers are very interested in this design." Cool Cowper replied.

"Okay, but half a year is still too long. Four months, Kuhl, you only have four months. After four months, I need a complete solution! Of course, if any department needs to cooperate during this period, everyone will Full cooperation, any support you need, you can contact me at any time and I will coordinate. Tell me, Kool, four months, okay?

"Okay! Mr. Carter!"

"In addition, if we continue to maintain contact with Huawei, we can raise the price appropriately."

"OK!"

"The meeting is over!"

…

In fact, Ericsson is definitely not the only one who holds the same idea.

For all network equipment service providers around the world, technical security has always been very important, which is why they invest heavily in technology research and development every year.

The more patent rights you have, the more say you can have.

Only by maintaining technological leadership can we have a dominant position in market competition.

For some new breakthrough technologies, before they are officially authorized, they must first have the ability to imitate in order to give people a sense of security.

As for the patent laws of various countries...

The strong one is intellectual property, the weak one is after use.

As long as the market is maintained first and it takes several years to litigate, it is not a big deal for these giant multinational companies.

Every year, these multinational companies may be involved in several lawsuits regarding patent infringement, sometimes with the plaintiff and sometimes with the defendant. This is not news. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, and sometimes we shake hands and settle the lawsuit in the middle of it...

In the most high-end competition, there are everyone, except honest people.

So God knows how many engineers around the world have been given the same assignment as Ericsson's CTO.

Imitation, improvement, and innovation bring everyone to the same starting line. Everyone continues to compete. Whoever falls behind will be eliminated first.

The injured are always the technicians fighting on the front line. After all, this kind of task is often the most arduous and laborious, requiring a long period of brain use, so it is likely to cause hair loss due to excessive brain use or long-term anxiety.

If something goes wrong if you don't do your job well, you may have to take the blame.

…

If Ning Wei knew this, he would probably be honored.

Ah……

Lao Han is not fighting alone.

Hundreds or even thousands of senior programmers and algorithm engineers around the world will face their shit-filled code day and night in the next few months. Just think about it, there is one thing that can make them Explosive stuff.

There are thousands more bald heads with high IQs in the field. When he goes to attend similar international conferences in the future, won't he be able to stand out with his lush hair?

But Ning Wei couldn't think about it at this time.

Because he was already standing outside the International Mathematics Research Center building of Yanbei University.

Lu Dongyi had just taken him to a hotel in the school to settle down, and now he was taking him to meet his tutor.

This was not his first time here, but he was still a little nervous.

The last time he came here, his appointed mentor went abroad to attend a meeting, so he couldn't see him, but this time, Tian Yan was actually waiting for him in the office. Although he has never met this mentor, Lu Dongyi has mentioned it to him frequently.

It can be said that they have been friends for a long time, and Ning Wei feels very stern.

"Is that Director Tian easy to deal with? I let Director Tian go for a year. He shouldn't scold me when we meet him, right?" Ning Wei asked.

"Ha...what do you think?" Lu Dongyi sneered.

"I'm not afraid of scolding me. The professors at Jiang University told me that if Director Tian dares to scold me, I will threaten him to change his mentor." Ning Wei said seriously.

"I……"

Lu Dongyi suddenly found that he had nothing to say. Well, my junior brother has become skinny...

"You have been led astray by the professors of Jiang University, little junior brother!"

"hehe!"

While they were bickering, the two of them had already entered the building.

The research center is still busy.

Many people think that university teachers are very relaxed, for example, they have winter and summer vacations. This perception is either correct or incorrect.

For some lecturers who are dedicated to teaching, they can indeed enjoy their holidays during the winter and summer vacations.

But for those professors who have pursuits, whether they have holidays depends on whether they have projects on hand.

National, provincial, superior or enterprise cooperation...

Especially in the fields of biology, chemistry, environment, and materials, when working on projects, let alone winter and summer vacations, it’s hard to say whether there will be weekends.

Specific to mathematics, it is no longer an era when problems can be solved with a pen and a piece of paper.

Even if you want to use a supercomputer during the winter and summer vacations, you have to queue up, and the free computing resources of supercomputers are still limited. It is better to use project funds to buy them.

There are also struggling graduate students and doctoral students who are about to graduate, but their results are not available and their papers are not up to standard...

Winter and summer vacation?

Haha, you can live in a dream.

The adult world - Ning Wei thinks it's actually not that difficult.

Because when he greeted the familiar professors and followed Lu Dongyi into Tian Yanzhen’s office, before he could get in the mood to say hello to his future mentor, the big boss just threw away a stack of information. give him.

"This is about the materials you used to apply for this year's top young talents. Check to see if there are any problems. Especially the proof of SCI, SSCI, SCSSCI inclusion and other citations of the paper listed in the application form. If it is incomplete, remember to add it. Oh, by the way, there is also the invitation letter for you to go to the SODA conference. Jiangsu University does not have the original, so I told you that you have it, so I will make it up."

Ning Wei was a little stunned...

what's going on?

Are all big guys this social?

Without his knowledge, so much information was prepared for him.

With such a terrible meeting gift, are you trying to make him bald too?

Seeing Ning Wei's confused look, Tian Yan really smiled.

"Your professors at Jiangsu University are annoying me to death because of this! Once these materials are all right, hand them over to me. You will definitely be able to pass the application this time, and the topic has been prepared for you. Regarding the research on advancing NS equations , are you okay?"