Bloomberg has revealed that Apple and Amazon are just a few of the US companies and agencies who have been hacked. Indeed, Chinese spies have stolen data through the use of tiny chips.
Tiny chips, made by a company named Super Micro Computer, were inserted on server circuit boards. As a result, the chips extracted important data. Bloomberg has claimed that the chips were “not much bigger than a grain of rice”.
But, Apple, Amazon and Super Micro Computer have all rejected the claims made by Bloomberg.
Bloomberg has said that the information first emerged back in 2015. This was following Amazon’s acquisition of Elemental Technologies which helped with expanding its video streaming service. However, it is said that Elemental Technologies’ servers were assembled by Super Micro Computer’s Chinese plants.
When servers were sent to Ontario, Canada, for third-party security testing, a tiny microchip was found on the circuit boards. As a result, Amazon reported this to US authorities which is said to have began a “top-secret probe” by the US. The discovery caused anxiety amongst the intelligence community because Elemental’s servers were used for various highly important projects. Servers can be found in Department of Defence data centres, the CIA’s drone operations and even the on board networks of Navy warships.
Bloomberg added that China is specifically advantaged when executing an attack like this. This is because China “makes 75% of the world’s mobile phones and 90% of its PCs”, it said.
In addition, one official has claimed that investigators believe that Apple has also been affected.
Apple was once an important customer of Super Micro Computers.
Amazon, Apple and Super Micro Computers have all denied Bloomberg’s report.
Amazon said:
“It’s untrue that Amazon Web Services knew about a supply chain compromise,”
Apple also commented:
“Apple has never found malicious chips, ‘hardware manipulations’ or vulnerabilities purposely planted in any server.”
Likewise, Super Micro Computer said it was “unaware of any such investigation”.
However, according to Bloomberg:
“The companies’ denials are countered by six current and former senior national security officials”.
Just last month, Amazon came under fire amid allegations of staff selling customer data.
At 10:58 GMT -4 today, shares in Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) were trading at -1.78%.
At 10:59 GMT -4 today, shares in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) were trading at -1.18%.
