[Swordmaker]

Apple CANCELLED its order for 30,000 servers in 2015 when it discovered they contained the motherboards that had this "tiny spy chip" in them, avoiding the spying problem. These servers, from a third party supplier, were destined to be installed in Apple's huge server farms. Apple was never at risk of having this spy chip installed in any of its Apple products as Apple designs and manufactures its own logic boards instead of using off-the-shelf generic motherboards as do many other computer and mobile device makers. Inserting a spurious chip on an Apple designed logic board would be caught during quality control checking as a surreptitiously inserted chip would stand out like a sore thumb in comparison to the design checks. —PING!

Apple Security Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[roadcat]

Apple CANCELLED its order for 30,000 servers in 2015 when it discovered they contained the motherboards that had this "tiny spy chip" in them, avoiding the spying problem.

If true, good for Apple to avoid this spying problem embedded in other company servers. It is so convenient to have your data in the cloud and access it from multiple devices in different places. As long as you're willing to risk the scenario that others can intercept your data. Not a problem for many of us, but still something to worry about. It amazes me how quickly I can manipulate my spreadsheet data in the cloud, when decades ago it took forever to download a megabyte of data. Different world now.

[Hodar]

As you said, Apple controls ALL ASPECTS of the board design, the parts list, incoming inspection, assembly drawings and manufacturing. Nothing goes on any Apple product without absolutely being designed and qualified.

Other manufacturers buy reference designs based on a chip set. They are based upon the chipset and the cost. Other companies do not control, much less care about PCB designs or manufacturers issues. They want the assembly cheap, reliable and delivered on schedule.

[BradyLS]

Our Chinese toys are spying on us...