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UK Cyber Security Agency Backs Apple, Amazon China Hack Denials (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Britain's national cyber security agency said on Friday it had no reason to doubt the assessments made by Apple and Amazon challenging a Bloomberg report that their systems contained malicious computer chips inserted by Chinese intelligence services. "We are aware of the media reports but at this stage have no reason to doubt the detailed assessments made by AWS and Apple," said the National Cyber Security Centre, a unit of Britain's eavesdropping agency, GCHQ. AWS refers to Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud-computing unit.
"The NCSC engages confidentially with security researchers and urges anybody with credible intelligence about these reports to contact us," it said. Apple's recently retired general counsel, Bruce Sewell, told Reuters he called the FBI's then-general counsel James Baker last year after being told by Bloomberg of an open investigation into Super Micro Computer, a hardware maker whose products Bloomberg said were implanted with malicious Chinese chips. "I got on the phone with him personally and said, 'Do you know anything about this?," Sewell said of his conversation with Baker. "He said, 'I've never heard of this, but give me 24 hours to make sure.' He called me back 24 hours later and said 'Nobody here knows what this story is about.'" The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday that it too had no reason to doubt statements from companies that have denied the Bloomberg report.
"The Department of Homeland Security is aware of the media reports of a technology supply chain compromise," DHS said in a statement. "Like our partners in the UK, the National Cyber Security Center, at this time we have no reason to doubt the statements from the companies named in the story," it said.
"The NCSC engages confidentially with security researchers and urges anybody with credible intelligence about these reports to contact us," it said. Apple's recently retired general counsel, Bruce Sewell, told Reuters he called the FBI's then-general counsel James Baker last year after being told by Bloomberg of an open investigation into Super Micro Computer, a hardware maker whose products Bloomberg said were implanted with malicious Chinese chips. "I got on the phone with him personally and said, 'Do you know anything about this?," Sewell said of his conversation with Baker. "He said, 'I've never heard of this, but give me 24 hours to make sure.' He called me back 24 hours later and said 'Nobody here knows what this story is about.'" The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday that it too had no reason to doubt statements from companies that have denied the Bloomberg report.
"The Department of Homeland Security is aware of the media reports of a technology supply chain compromise," DHS said in a statement. "Like our partners in the UK, the National Cyber Security Center, at this time we have no reason to doubt the statements from the companies named in the story," it said.
Therefore, their systems have backdoors.
Someone at Bloomberg shorting Supermicro stock?
This "Chinese cyber attack" is just a fake story planted by the Trump administration. It's the first step in blaming upcoming election rigging on China instead of our good friend Putin, who will be doing all he can to subvert the outcome.
Expect more manufactured evidence in the near future. Yellowcake anyone?
First - given the unusually specific, no-bones-about-it wording used by Apple in their denial, I believe their statement. Some of the other companies, though, seemed to be giving themselves a bit of maneuvering room.
But both the UK’s and US’s spy agency statements basically just say “we have seen no evidence as of yet”. It’s a very careful statement which doesn’t really mean much.
#DeleteChrome
"The thing is nobody has produced any evidence that China has done so" Yet Trump asserts it happened without evidence, continues to deny Putin meddled which directly put Trump in power. = Trump is beholden to Putin, period.
I have a number of Supermicro servers. I spent Friday poring over Wireshark logs looking for evidence of any kind of a command and control connection. I found nothing.
I don't trust Bloomberg for technical issues like this.
Any ideas what I should be looking for?
Greed is the root of all evil.
The ISIS news organization of Afghanistan vehemently agrees with the statements of the US corporations, saying: "Although we lack we capability of unobstructed travel to the said facilities where these systems have supposedly been installed and physical access to the affected systems boards, we see no reason not to vehemently agree with the statements made relating to this issue."