Politics Chinese spy chips are found in hardware used by Apple, Amazon, Bloomberg says; Apple, AWS say no way

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/10/04...denies-the-bloomberg-businessweek-report.html

Data center equipment run by Amazon Web Services and Apple may have been subject to surveillance from the Chinese government via a tiny microchip inserted during the equipment manufacturing process, according to a Bloomberg BusinessWeek report on Thursday. The claims in the report have been strongly disputed by the technology giants.

The chips, which Bloomberg said have been the subject of a top secret U.S. government investigation starting in 2015, were used for gathering intellectual property and trade secrets from American companies and may have been introduced by a Chinese server company called Super Micro that assembled machines used in the centers.

Apple, AWS and Super Micro dispute the report. Apple said it did not find the chips as asserted by BusinessWeek — which cited anonymous government and corporate sources. Super Micro reportedly denied that it introduced the chips during the manufacturing.

Shares of Super Micro plummeted more than 40 percent following the report. Trading of the small server company's common stock on the Nasdaq was suspended on Aug. 23 after repeatedly missing SEC filing deadlines. Super Micro shares now trade on over-the-counter markets.

Apple shares edged 1 percent lower in Thursday trading, while Amazon fell about 1.5 percent.

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Asked by CNBC for comment, Apple reiterated its strong denials of the report, stating: "We are deeply disappointed that in their dealings with us, Bloomberg's reporters have not been open to the possibility that they or their sources might be wrong or misinformed. Our best guess is that they are confusing their story with a previously reported 2016 incident in which we discovered an infected driver on a single Super Micro server in one of our labs. That one-time event was determined to be accidental and not a targeted attack against Apple."

AWS has also denied the report, telling CNBC in a statement, "As we shared with Bloomberg BusinessWeek multiple times over the last couple months, at no time, past or present, have we ever found any issues relating to modified hardware or malicious chips in SuperMicro motherboards in any Elemental or Amazon systems.‎"

A statement from the China foreign ministry said "China is a resolute defender of cybersecurity."

According to Bloomberg, the problem was discovered in 2015 and confirmed by independent security investigators hired by the cloud providers. Super Micro servers were removed by Apple that year, according to the report, which also asserts ties with Super Micro were severed in 2016. A follow-up investigation involving several government agencies was conducted, as well. Apple and AWS deny these moves involving Super Micro were related to chip worries. No consumer data was stolen as part of the alleged campaign, according to the report.

China has long been suspected — but rarely directly implicated — in en masse spy campaigns based on hardware made there. The majority of electronic components used in U.S. technology are manufactured in China. Companies including component manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, as well as surveillance camera maker Hikvision, have all fallen under intense suspicion and scrutiny from the U.S. government in the past year.

Intellectual property theft is one of the core arguments for tough trade restrictions on China by the Trump administration.

 

@BigGameDamian
Sometime I worry a bit about spy stuff being built right into the hardware we get from china, like the motherboards and a bunch of stuff. When you build a computer, you can not help but notice, the great majority of the parts come from china. We probably ought recognize it for the National security risk it is. You can take all the damn precautions you want and it mean nothing if the hardware comes with spy on board.

 

I do hope you fellas have a handle on it.
Intel never makes quite what I want in a motherboard, but the Chinese do fill the gap. And of course, nothing could be put in the MB
that could not be detected by the Operating System, no in, no out without it's cooperation. But I never hear of that service, nor see it listed in any list.

Back when IBM made MBs a few things were done odd after the others came along, just for that purpose. But that is long gone to Lenovo, in China I believe.

Any one but Intel make a MOBO in the US anymore? Hell! maybe not even Intel.

 

Yeah Trump!
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...t-ban-on-kaspersky-lab-software-idUSKBN1E62V4

 

This is one of many reasons why I don't speculate on stocks. I invest in a lot of different stocks so if one fails I'm still okay. My poor niece speculated in stocks and told me how much money I could make if I'd just let her invest some. She wound up going bankrupt. I've seen it as often as I've seen successes. The successes are very nice but the failures are devastating.

I had a cousin-in-law who said the IRS had no Constitutional right to collect income taxes. The IRS wound up taking him for all he had.

Why are people so dumb and hard headed? It's a horrible combination.

 

...why give all the credit to Trump?...especially for something that happened almost a year ago?........n/m

 

Not likely that flight control hardware or software would be affected. The government uses equipment and components and subcomponents that are tightly controlled. At Boeing, we had to have ASIC chips that were designed by government regulated companies using government regulated parts made by government regulated companies, etc., etc., etc. Even the chip designs are reviewed. We couldn't even make common repairs because an infiltrator could have made an illegal repair somehow sabotaging the part.

We even had a whole section of Boeing we called "The Black Box" which was in a different physical location and tightly controlled, and I do mean tightly.

No, I think it's highly unlikely that any of these chips were used on sensitive aircraft.

 

Violent? I always attributed rational calm on your part except when it comes to our country's enemies where and when I hope you truly become violent.

I have full trust that you remain rational and calm even when drinking. I don't even need confirmation although it would be an interesting experience.