Roger Fingas
The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, claims that the government has seen "no evidence" so far that Chinese spy chips were planted onto motherboards that then made their way into servers at companies like Apple.
"We've seen no evidence of that, but we're not taking anything for granted," Coats told CyberScoop ahead of a speech. "We haven't seen anything, but we're always watching."
During the speech itself, Coats warned businesses to "be aware of supply chain threats," and recognize that "cyberthreats to your supply chain are an insidious problem that can jeopardize the integrity of your products."
Earlier in October, a Bloomberg report based on extensive investigation claimed that Apple, Amazon, and almost 30 other companies had been the victim of an espionage campaign in which rice-sized chips had been planted on motherboards made by Super Micro. Once delivered, the motherboards supposedly created a backdoor into infrastructure like Apple's iCloud.
Apple was quick to deny allegations, insisting that it had conducted a "massive, granular, and siloed investigation."
Amazon has likewise issued denials.
"There are so many inaccuracies in this article as it relates to Amazon that they're hard to count," Amazon said in its statement, refuting several specific claims, and specifically citing that there was no modified hardware found
Several subsequent accounts have cast further doubt, such as one from the senior advisor for Cybersecurity Strategy to the director of the U.S. National Security Agency. Additionally, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security commented that it had "no reason to doubt" the positions of Apple and Amazon.
Bloomberg hasn't backed down from its claims, and U.S. senators have asked Super Micro for answers.
While the report surrounding the alleged chip matter is still contentious, U.S. corporate and government networks are regularly the target of hacks by Chinese operatives trying to obtain secrets or probe defenses.
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Amber Neely
34 Comments
Because we now live in a conspiratorial environment where no one believes the government or corporations this kind of story lives on. Many of us still believe LBJ ordered the Kennedy assassination, the Moon landing was faked, the Twin Towers was an inside job ordered by George Bush. We now have Apple and Amazon on record as saying it didn’t happen and many here on AI don’t believe them even though there would be very serious legal and financial repercussions if they lied. All the government security agencies are saying they have not seen any evidence of doctored motherboards, and Bloomberg cannot provide such a board for inspection. Again, many don’t believe anything the government says because, you know, those jet contrails you see in he sky are actually the government spraying Prozac laced chemicals on the population to keep us subdued. It’s now Bloomberg against the corporations and the government and Bloomberg is to be believed because it’s a ‘news’ source and unimpeachable. Really? Where are the corroborating reports from other news outlets? Do they not have the ability to investigate the veracity of Bloombergs claims or they ‘ in on it’ too?
Yeah it would be nice if all the outlets that ran this story (I heard it on my local radio) made a correction that there has been zero evidence or collaboration, and is outright refuted by all parties of any relevance.
The spy chip is an imagined story by Bloomberg reporters after they got the idea from a theoretical work of a security researcher. The whole story is possible due to freedom of speech being exploited by the media for their own interests.