Skip to main content

Spy Chip

See All Stories

Comment: Trump is an extra reason to doubt the spy chip story

Super Micro spy chip story and Trump

Just when we thought the world couldn’t get any more surreal, the Super Micro spy chip story has been raised from the dead.

Bloomberg was roundly condemned at the time for sticking to its guns even after there was overwhelming evidence that it was mistaken and had confused talk of a theoretical risk with an actual attack. The agency was repeatedly asked to provide hard evidence for the claim, rather than just hearsay, and failed to do so …

Expand Expanding Close

Bloomberg resurrects Super Micro spy chip story; NSA still ‘befuddled’ by the claims

Bloomberg resurrects Super Micro spy chip story

Bloomberg is resurrecting the Super Micro spy chip story it first ran in 2018. The original story was met with blanket and unambiguous denials from everyone from Apple to the NSA, and the media company was roundly condemned for failing to either provide supporting evidence or retract the claim. Today, it is doubling down.

Today’s update claims that spy chips were found in Super Micro servers at the US Department of Defense …

Expand Expanding Close

Super Micro dropping Chinese chips despite no evidence of Apple spy chip claims

Super Micro dropping Chinese chips despite zero evidence of spy chips

American server supplier Super Micro is dropping Chinese chips from its products, despite zero evidence ever emerging to support claims of spy chips installed in Apple and Amazon servers – and a great deal of evidence to suggest that Bloomberg’s report was wrong.

Bloomberg last year claimed that Apple found Chinese surveillance chips in servers supplied by Super Micro, a claim which was quickly and aggressively refuted by Apple and others …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Super Micro audit complete, including servers supplied to Apple: no spy chips found

Super Micro

The tech news was dominated in October by a dramatic Bloomberg claim that Chinese spy chips had been embedded into the Super Micro motherboards of servers supplied to Apple, Amazon and others. The report claimed that Apple had discovered the chips, and reported the fact to the FBI.

All involved – Apple, Amazon and Super Micro – denied the claims, but the motherboard supplier decided the only way to lay this to rest was to commission an independent audit to investigate. That investigation has now been completed, and the firm says it found absolutely no evidence to support the story …


Expand
Expanding
Close

One of Bloomberg’s sources told them Chinese spy chip story “didn’t make sense” [U]

Bloomberg

Bloomberg said that its sources were key to its decision to run the Chinese spy chip story, the site writing that ’17 people confirmed the manipulation of Supermicro’s hardware and other elements of the attacks.’

However, one of the named sources – a security researcher who seemingly backed the claims – has said that his comment was taken out of context, and he actually told the site that what it was describing to him “didn’t make sense” …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Comment: Four more reasons it’s now inconceivable Apple lied about Chinese spy chips

chinese spy chip

I wrote an opinion piece on Friday outlining the five reasons I believe Apple, not Bloomberg, about the Chinese spy chip story.

It’s a friend-of-a-friend story. The technical arguments suggest it didn’t happen in the way Bloomberg says it did. Apple’s denial appears unequivocal. The company has ruled out the gag order theory. And, if it were true, there would be no reason now not to come clean about it.

Since then, four further reasons to believe Apple have emerged …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Senior Apple execs deny allegations of iCloud server Chinese ‘spy’ chips in new report

Site default logo image

Following a string of denials from the company itself, “multiple senior Apple executives” have now spoken to BuzzFeed News regarding Bloomberg’s puzzling story alleging server infiltration by a Chinese spy chip. The executives, who spoke under the condition on anonymity, strongly denied the story to BuzzFeed and offered more details on the internal Apple investigation.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Opinion: The five reasons I believe Apple, not Bloomberg, about the Chinese spy chip claim

chinese spy chip

Bloomberg’s Chinese spy chip story yesterday has dominated tech news. All the companies involved – Apple, Amazon and Super Micro – have issued strong denials, so the big question is: who is telling the truth?

The piece was either a massive scoop about something of vital importance to everyone, or an embarrassing misunderstanding since debunked by the companies involved.

Deciding which applies isn’t entirely straightforward, but there are five reasons I come down on the side of believing Apple …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple continues denial of Chinese server spy infiltration with new statement

Earlier today, Apple issued an incredibly strong denial in response to a report from Bloomberg, which alleged that Apple and a handful of other tech companies had some data compromised due to Chinese surveillance chips being found in a Super Micro server. The report noted that these chips were found on Apple’s servers sometime around 2015.

Following its earlier statement on the report, Apple has now published a press release on its website detailing what actually happened as it continues to deny the allegations.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple strongly refutes report that it found Chinese ‘spy’ chips in iCloud servers

Bloomberg has today published a report claiming that companies including Amazon and Apple found Chinese surveillance chips in their server hardware contracted from Super Micro. Bloomberg claims Apple found these chips on its server motherboards in 2015. Apple is strongly refuting this report, sending out press statements to several publications, not just Bloomberg.

In a statement to CNBC, Apple said ‘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.’.


Expand
Expanding
Close