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Several large technology firms were put on the defensive earlier this year when Bloomberg published a blockbuster piece that claimed Chinese authorities had snuck spy chips into servers used by Amazon, Apple, and others. The companies cited in the report strenuously denied they had ever found spy chips in their servers, and now an independent review lends credence to the denials.
The original Bloomberg report alleged that server motherboards manufactured by a firm called Super Micro had been altered during by elements of China’s government. The only addition was a tiny, almost invisible chip that could allow Chinese authorities to spy on the data going through that server. There are two ways to make changes like this. Either you intercept the hardware between manufacturing and the customer, or you alter it during manufacturing. This was, of course, very alarming to everyone who uses the internet. Amazon and Apple servers contain data from many of us, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The report claimed around 30 companies had received the malicious boards.
Amazon and Apple responded forcefully to the report, calling on Bloomberg to retract the story. Meanwhile, Super Micro denied its boards were ever compromised and embarked on a quest to offer proof. The company employed an outside firm called Nardello to analyze its servers to find the supposed spy chips. Nardello got a representative sample of current and older model motherboards from both Apple and Amazon servers. Super Micro did not say what number constitutes a “representative sample.”
From Bloomberg’s Chinese server illustration, but we still don’t know if the image was a real mockup of hardware or not.
According to Super Micro’s statement, Nardello found no evidence of malicious hardware on the boards it tested. The company also reviewed design files used to manufacture the boards, finding no unexpected alterations. Super Micro even produced a video explaining its hardware inspection process. The posting stops short of promising a lawsuit, but the company is rumored to be leaning in that direction.
Bloomberg’s initial report cited numerous experts in government and the technology industry who confirmed Bloomberg’s story. However, no one has come forward publicly with evidence—no one seems to have one of these compromised motherboards to analyze. It’s still possible that Bloomberg’s story was technically correct, but there were only a handful of malicious chips implanted, and Nardello’s sample of Super Micro boards didn’t include those. The ball is in Bloomberg’s court if it wants to rebut the latest report.
Now read:
- Bloomberg Claims Hacked SuperMicro Server Found in US Telecom
Apple Denies Bloomberg Chinese Hacking Story to Congress
F-Secure Says Almost All Computers Are Vulnerable to New Cold Boot Attack
Top image credit: Getty Images
