China used tiny chips on US computers to steal secrets: report
China used tiny chips on US computers to steal secrets:
report
AFP News 4 October 2018
Tiny chips inserted in US computer equipment manufactured
in China were used as part of a vast effort by Beijing to steal US technology
secrets, a published report said Thursday.
The Bloomberg News report said the chips, the size of a
grain of rice, were used on equipment made for Amazon, which first alerted US
authorities, and Apple, and possibly for other companies and government
agencies.
Bloomberg said a three-year secret investigation, which
remains open, enabled spies to create a "stealth doorway" into
computer equipment, a hardware-based entry that would be more effective and
harder to detect than a software hack.
Citing unnamed US officials, Bloomberg said a unit of the
People's Liberation Army were involved the operation that placed the chips on
equipment manufactured in China for US-based Super Micro Computer Inc.
Supermicro, according to Bloomberg, also manufactured
equipment for Department of Defense data centers, the CIA's drone operations,
and onboard networks of Navy warships.
The report said Amazon discovered the problem when it
acquired software firm Elemental and began a security review of equipment made
for Elemental by California-based Supermicro.
According to Bloomberg, the spy chips were designed for
motherboards -- the nerve centers for computer equipment -- used in data
centers operated by Apple, Amazon Web Services and others.
Apple said in a statement it "has never found
malicious chips, 'hardware manipulations' or vulnerabilities purposely planted
in any server."
A statement by Amazon to AFP said that "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."
Supermicro could not immediately be reached for comment,
but Bloomberg said the firm denied any knowledge of the espionage or
investigation.
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