What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 445 Silver Shield
Magic City.

When I returned to Shanghai's semiconductor industry, a new look had emerged.

After acquiring Tangwen Holdings, in addition to integration, they also cut off a whole bunch of miscellaneous product lines, such as radios, and focused on the chip business.

Currently, besides developing GS mainframes for Gagkin Networks, the main profit-making hopes are placed on industrial control chips and micro sensors needed for automotive and aerospace applications.

For example, it's really inappropriate to rely on imports for something as simple as controlling the raising and lowering of car windows.

Of course, besides these smaller things, after poaching some people from the Institute of Computing Technology, Shanghai's semiconductor industry has also opened up another high-end track:
Mobile network communication technology.

In this era, feature phones have only been widespread for a short time, and the first mobile phones were discontinued only a few years ago. Even pseudo-mobile phones like PHS (Personal Handyphone System) still have a huge market.

Domestically, few people realized that the outside world was advancing by leaps and bounds, and that the GSM protocol was about to bring about a historic transformation.

Tang Wen had considered bringing the iPhone to fruition ahead of schedule, but after trying, he realized that the major mobile communication giants had already grown up and it would be difficult to intercept or acquire them.

Meanwhile, China was still in the pioneering stage of mobile digital communication, so it was better to go it alone.

Computer technology has entered the second half of the rally, but the smartphone race has not yet begun, and there is a great chance that China will develop its own system.

Japan and South Korea stubbornly refused to join GSM, but they ended up doing quite well later on.
Tang Wen's requirements for Shanghai's semiconductor industry are:

It is comparable to GSM, where calls and commands are all digital, which is the 2G communication standard.

However, this project is still in the early research stage and the direction has just been established. Tang Wen came this time to continue to assign new tasks.

"This is Hou Jian, Director Hou. He came to Echeng with me for an inspection before."

Zhao Hande brought along the people from the banking system he mentioned, who looked much younger.

"Hello, Director Hou, let me speak."

Ni Zhenhai had already exchanged some information with Tang Wen before, and now he directly opened the PPT.

PPT suddenly became popular after the launch of Hanma S9, and now it's all the rage across the country, although the style is still a bit outdated.

Ni Zhenhai's PPT was projected onto the screen, with the title:

"Silver Shield: Protecting Online Banking Security"

This is the security measure for banks in this era of digitalization: Silver Shield.

Its full name is Online Banking Guardian Card, a physical function card similar to a Chinese character card. It is plugged directly into the motherboard of most modern computers through ISA or the more advanced PCI interface.

"The current network system is very imperfect. The Microsoft system we commonly use has many vulnerabilities. If we only use software and web page methods for encryption, users' accounts and passwords can be easily stolen, and even directly threaten the security of the head office."

It's like someone carrying money walking through a train station; no matter how carefully they look, a thief will always manage to steal it. But Silver Shield is like a cage that puts the person inside, directly eliminating the possibility of leakage.

Ni Zhenhai used a metaphor to describe the security of the Chinese character card, making it understandable to Zhao Hande and Hou Jian.

Seeing that the two did not show any confusion, he continued:

"Silver Shield is a separate small space. Information involved in any online transaction does not pass through the computer where it is installed, but is processed, encrypted and sent directly through Silver Shield."

Each silver shield, after production, must be engraved with a unique electronic signature under the supervision of the head office. This signature is unforgeable and can only be used by the head office server. Then…

Tang Wen, who was standing nearby, was also listening. However, Silver Shield was not a sudden idea; it was created specifically for online banking security.

This serves the same purpose as the U-shield in the original timeline, but it's not the same thing:
U-shields are purely external security devices. They require multiple layers of verification for security, which is cumbersome and inconvenient to use. Moreover, they are not absolutely secure.

But Silver Shield is different. Silver Shield is designed more like a standalone mini-computer. It integrates a coprocessor (CPU), ROM, RAM, encryption chip, and more on a single card, possessing the functions required by a computer and operating independently of the computer system.

Everything revolves around the transaction portal for funds; all fund flows are conducted through Silver Shield. The computer is merely an interactive tool used to enter passwords. Theoretically, as long as Silver Shield doesn't crack the host, there's absolutely no chance of success.

It might seem complicated now, and the price would be very high, but currently online banking is installed in banks or workplaces, so cost is not the issue that needs to be addressed.

Silver Shield's goal is to embed professional software into physical cards, and then, when it is updated and iterated in the future, to subtly promote the software ecosystem developed by Shanghai Semiconductor within the company.

This software ecosystem is the same as the GS host ecosystem, which is also based on x86 but is different from Windows; they are from the same source.

Early versions of Silver Shield will use a weakened version of the GS1 chip, resulting in very weak performance.

At first, it could only be a single financial software, but soon there were other office, drawing software, etc., which meant that a separate system was plugged into Windows.

When the system becomes more and more perfect, computers modified from GS hosts can take advantage of the normal upgrade and replacement of Windows to complete the large-scale replacement of official hosts in a very short time.

Other communication protocol issues are also being addressed by Shanghai Semiconductor, and web browsing is not a problem at all. For the official side, the transition to the domestic system can be achieved with minimal cost, so spending money is not important at all.

These details haven't been discussed with the two yet, but they've already accepted Silver Shield's security philosophy.

Hou Jian: "In other words, the online banking system relies entirely on YinDun to operate independently, and YinDun is entirely domestically produced and completely controlled by us, right?"

Ni Zhenhai: "That's right."

"How long will it take to manufacture? Approximately how much will it cost?"

"We were able to develop the first batch of samples in the first half of 98, at a price..."

Ni Zhenhai looked at Tang Wen, who immediately replied:
"Free. I'll give you a number: the first generation of 10,000 silver shields will all be provided free of charge, and there will be no charge for after-sales service. Just give us your feedback. We'll officially purchase the second generation after it's been improved."

"Isn't this not good?"

Hou Jian couldn't help but look at Zhao Hande, who simply smiled and said:

"Even if each bill is worth 5000 yuan, it's only 50 million yuan. Let's take advantage of the richest man's wealth."

"Then it's settled on 10,000 cards. As soon as you mentioned online banking and UnionPay, I realized how important they are. We absolutely can't miss them, but we also can't afford any problems. We'll leave the bank's cybersecurity to Shanghai."

Hou Jian readily agreed, partly because he valued Ni Zhenhai's reputation. Everyone knew the reputation of this technical expert; the Chinese character card was developed under his leadership.

……

While Hou Jian was away in the restroom, Zhao Hande suddenly spoke:
"I suspect this matter isn't that simple. You're definitely trying to infiltrate the official system with your products, replacing foreign electronic products brick by brick, until you end up with a completely gold-plated product."

Although he didn't understand technology, he had a keen intuition.

"Team leader, you've got a great idea! But it's just a thought for now, we're still a long way off."

Tang Wenzhi gave a thumbs up, saying, "The older generation is truly the older generation."

Zhao Hande paid no attention to these petty thoughts, and simply said:

"10 tons of cement for strategic reserves have been allocated. When are you going to move it?"

"So fast?"

"We only cleared out one warehouse, and it has already been transported to the port at the mouth of the Yangtze River. We need to find a time to move it away so it doesn't take up space."

(End of this chapter)