Apple's Tim Cook demands Chinese spy chip story to be retracted by Bloomberg

MSN News ^ | 8 hrs ago | Christopher Carbone

[cba123]

Apple CEO Tim Cook has upped the ante in its denial of an investigative report claiming a Chinese spy chip was embedded into the tech giant's servers, telling BuzzFeed News that Bloomberg must retract the story--"This did not happen. There's no truth to this."

"I was involved in our response to this story from the beginning," Cook said according to Buzzfeed. "I personally talked to the Bloomberg reporters along with Bruce Sewell who was then our general counsel. We were very clear with them that this did not happen, and answered all their questions. ... Each time they brought this up to us, the story changed and each time we investigated we found nothing."

Seems Apple is pretty forcefully, denying that. But then Bloomberg said:

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Remember, the terrorist DID NOT OWN THE PHONE!! It was the property of the county (he was a food inspector) who DID give permission to the FBI.

Cook, no doubt a gay icon, played milked the whole thing for every penny.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Besides, I’d say 14 people killed and scores more wounded, when the warrant was in place was a technicality. As in, I am pretty sure it could have been gotten in like 2 seconds flat.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

In fact, I’d go further and say that the San Bernadino Syed Farook cell phone was Tim Cook’s SPARTICUS moment! LOL.

[ctdonath2]

FBI demanded a solution that would have put security of all cell phones at risk. Cook said no, as he should.

[Zathras]

The microprocessor and chipset are designed in the USA.
Highly unlikely it could happen.

[Zathras]

They are assembled in China.
Designed in the USA

[bkopto]

Maybe you should read the original Bloomberg article instead of guessing what happened.

[Swordmaker]

Apple strongly demands that Bloomberg withdraw its bogus story about malicious Chinese spy chips being hidden IN PLAIN SIGHT on SuperMicro, a THIRD PARTY AMERICAN CORPORATiON that designs and makes SERVER motherboards, motherboards which are not even Apple products, that were supposedly discovered by BOTH Amazon and Apple, both of whom were considering using the servers using those SuperMicro motherboards, THREE YEARS AGO, causing Apple to cancel an order for 30,000 iCloud rack mounted servers from yet another third party company that made the servers. NOT ONE SINGLE THING CAN BE FOUND IN THE HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THE THREE COMPANIES TO SUBSTANTIATE THIS ABSURD CLAIM. The FBI, NSA and the UK's GSHQ (their equivalent of the NSA) have all stated in official statements that no such event ever occurred that they are aware of, and no report of a security vulnerability was ever reported to the Department of Homeland Security as is and was required by Federal Law. Bloomberg's experts they cited have come forward to claim they have been misquoted, taken out of context, or their hypothetical comments used as statements of absolute fact. Two experts who told the Bloomberg reporters that their claims and theories "Made no sense," had that statement omitted from their quotation. Ergo, Bloomberg's bogus story NEVER HAPPENED. —PING!

Apple Demands Bloomberg Supermicro Tall Tale Retraction Ping!

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

[Swordmaker]

Still not clear, who is telling the truth here...

It's easy to tell. Bloomberg has a reputation of publishing FAKE NEWS, and not a single story on this has another source except Bloomberg who used anonymous sources.

• Not a single Supermicro motherboard has been found with a bogus chip on it. . . out of millions made. Not one. . . except for Bloomberg's claim they found them. Ergo, it never happened.

• In the original Bloomberg article announcing the discovery of malicious Chinese spy chips, Bloomberg's reporters who are NOT technically inclined, claimed that both Amazon and Apple discovered the malicious chips in the summer of 2015 when they were examining sample rack mounted servers from SuperMicro which they had purchased as part of their due diligence testing before buying a lot more for their respective cloud systems, Amazon Cloud and iCloud. The story relates how Apple, according to anonymous sources within Apple, cancelled a 30,000 unit order from Supermicro for rack mounted servers and severed its relationship with Supermicro after discovering the malicious chip on a Supermicro motherboard in the summer of 2015. The fact is that Apple did no such thing. First of all, both Amazn and Apple were ordering their servers from Elemental Systems Inc. which USED Supermicro motherboards in its rack mounted servers. Both Amazon and Apple continued doing business with Elemental. Ergo, it never happened.

• In fact, Amazon BOUGHT Elemental Systems Inc. lock, stock, and SuperMicro Inc. contract barrel, in the Autumn of 2015, to assure a locked in source of high quality rack mounted servers for their new Amazon Web Service company, (AWS). Elemental began extricating itself from other third-party contracts, including its contract with Apple. Apple purchased between 2,000 and 5,000 Elemental Systems rack mounted servers for use in its iTunes streaming movie/video service. . . but not for iCloud. . . because they were specifically designed for high speed streaming. Apple finally severed its relationship with Elemental and SuperMicro in the summer of 2016, ONE YEAR after they were, according to Bloomberg, supposed to have found the surreptitious spy chip on the SuperMicro motherboard in an Elemental server. Ergo, it never happened.

• Amazon, for it's part, certainly would NOT have purchased Elemental AND it's contract with SuperMicro had they found such a suspicious spy chip in their due diligence examination for just an order, much less acquiring the entire company. Ergo, it never happened.

• By Federal law, BOTH Apple and Amazon are REQUIRED to report any such security vulnerability immediately on discovery. THERE IS NO SUCH REPORT. The purpose of such a report is to CLOSE THE VULNERABILITY as quickly as possible. . . yet Bloomberg would have us believe this was allowed to fester for THREE YEARS! Ergo, it never happened.

• SuperMicro, is based in San Jose, California. It DESIGNS its own motherboards in California, not relying on reference board designs like most motherboard manufacturers, and is responsible for its own Quality Control. These motherboards are six to eight layer laminates, with circuitry on both sides of the laminae. To add an additional Integrated Circuit to the surface of the motherboard would require RE-DESIGNING and RE-ENGINEERING of every layer of the motherboard from the ground up, not an inexpensive or trivial task, nor an easy thing to hide. The IC and the changes to the motherboard would stand out on a QC comparison, which is done by SuperMicro, raising huge RED FLAGS and AHOOGA KLAXONS ALARMS saying this motherboard does NOT MATCH the design criteria. Ergo, it never happened.

• The ONLY photograph of the claimed IC used in the Bloomberg article is one of an IC perched on the tip of a finger. However, that IC is not what they claim it to be. It is, according to one of the expert designers, and also to FR experts on such things, a mere common "coupler" used by the dozens on circuit boards and not anything that can do anything like what was claimed. Not once has Bloomberg shown one of these compromised motherboards with the Chinese spy ICs in situ. NO PHOTO EVIDENCE, NO CHIP. Ergo, it never happened.

• The FBI, the NSA, and the UK's GSHQ (their equivalent of the CIA and NSA) all released official statements they have no reports and no evidence that such a thing occurred. Ergo, it never happened.

• Finally, Bloomberg has been pushing a company called Sepio Inc., which sells a software scanning system for servers which has the sole purpose of finding surreptitious hardware ICs installed on the motherboards and daughterboards. The co-CEO, Yossi Appleboum, has been working with Bloomberg's reporters on these stories for the past year. . . and appears to be the sole real source for the stories. This smacks of previous hoax stories from companies with such anti-virus software to sell who suddenly find a infestation of the systems their software is designed to protect. The 600,000 MacBot hoax from a Russian anti-virus company just at the time they were releasing their first anti-virus for business comes to mind, where not a single infected Mac was ever found in the wild. Sepio wants to sell its products. Bloomberg is pushing the company which was formed in 2016. Ergo, it never happened.

• Keep in mind, that not a single Apple or Amazon product is accused of being compromised. . . it has to do with the VIDEO servers used to stream their Amazon Prime and Apple's iTunes movies and video content, because that is what SuperMicro motherboards are specialized for. What are the Chinese going to get? Reruns of "I love Lucy?" The ability to pirate just released to BlueRay movies, or original Amazon and Apple iTunes content? Unlikely in 2015. Ergo, it never happened.

[Swordmaker]

Where is SuperMicro on this? They are a Taiwan-based company that was responsible for the manufacture of the servers. They have a LOT more to lose. I once owned a Supermicro motherboard, in part because they weren’t made in Red China in the 90s. (For the record, dual Pentium II 400Mhz with 256mb DIMMs and AGP 2x, plus a PCI modem card, 68 pin SCSI internal HDs.

It's an American/Taiwanese company. Their headquarters are in San Jose, California, with some ownership in Taiwan. Their design and engineering is done in California, not Taiwan. They do not use a reference design. . . but custom work they do themselves.

[Swordmaker]

Tim Cook to self: “Humm, how can I get tons of free publicity like I did when I refused to help crack Syed Farook’s (the San Bernadino terrorist) cell phone...?”

Sigh. Apple Complied with every legal search warrant, handing over Syed Farook's Apple iCloud data. Apple VOLUNTEED to help unlock the iPhone 5c that was found in the car following the terrorist attack, but the local authorities and the FBI said "No, thanks, we can do it ourselves." and proceeded to change the AppleID on the iPhone which would have allowed Apple to unlock it.

The FBI then DEMANDED that Apple design and give to the FBI a new iOS version that would unlock ALL iPhones, so they could install it on the target iPhone. They impermissibly (read illegally) used what is called an All Writs Court Order to try to force Apple to do something that is outside their normal course of business, something an All Writs Court Order CANNOT BE USED TO DO. . . and the appellate court so ruled. . . following the law which was what they US Supreme Court had ruled on the use of All Writs orders. Apple is NOT in the business of writing custom operating systems. Never has been and never will be. They also cannot be compelled to write an OS that destroys the security of their products which is what the FBI was demanding they do.

Once the FBI and the County IT guy had changed the AppleID, it was locked.

Your claim that "Apple refused to help" is completely bogus because Apple volunteered to help which was stupidly rejected.

The entire thing was a ploy by the FBI to get Apple forced to provide a backdoor access to ALL iPhones. The FBI knew there was nothing on that iPhone because the terrorists had destroyed the burner phones they had been using for their plotting as well as their laptops. The only reason they would NOT destroy his work iPhone was there was nothing on it of probative value, which is what they found when, months later, after expending a million dollars with an Israeli company, they unlocked it and found only work related data and a couple of texts of the "stop and buy milk on your way home" variety from his terrorist wife. Nothing more.

[Swordmaker]

Maybe apple should build their chips in America to avoid this being viewed as real

Excuse me, this has NOTHING to do with something buried inside a chip. It has everything to do with ADDING a custom made chip to a MOTHERBOARD, something EASILY FOUND. Apple designs and has it's own chips made. . . and adding something surreptitious to those would be nigh unto impossible.

In fact, 4rcane, this has ZERO to do with any Apple products. This was about Apple along with Amazon actually supposedly DISCOVERING a surreptitious INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CHIP added to a motherboard on a rack mounted server that BOTH were planning on buying for their cloud servers, NOT for a product they were going to be selling. This was a motherboard manufactured in China for a company called Super Micro Computer, DBA SuperMicro. These motherboards were installed the rack mounted servers made by Elemental Systems, designed for high-speed streaming video servers.

The problem is that so many articles are being written by people who have a READING COMPREHENSION PROBLEM. . . who failed to recognize that BLOOMBERG was using both Amazon and Apple to get clicks. . . because they actually credited both Amazon and Apple with independently FINDING the malicious chip on the motherboards in the summer of 2015. . . but are writing articles as if the spy chips are in Apple products when that is NOT THE CASE!

Nor are these chips inside other chips, which actually would be a much smarter way to do this. They are, according to the BOGUS Bloomberg article, sitting like RED FLAG SORE THUMBS in plain sight on the motherboard.

[Swordmaker]

At the time of my purchase, I recall manufacturing being done in Taiwan.

Probably was then. . . but even Samsung has much of its manufacturing done in China now instead of South Korea. It's just too attractive to be where the supply chains are.

[Swordmaker]

Remember, the terrorist DID NOT OWN THE PHONE!! It was the property of the county (he was a food inspector) who DID give permission to the FBI.

Cook, no doubt a gay icon, played milked the whole thing for every penny.

Frankly, you don't have a clue what you are talking about. See my reply above. I repeat, Apple volunteered to help unlock the work iPhone Syed was using, but the County IT guy under the FBI's direction CHANGED the AppleID, which locked everyone, including Apple out of it. Apple HAD Syed's AppleID with which they could have, had they been permitted to help, unlocked the iPhone.

[Swordmaker]

Besides, I’d say 14 people killed and scores more wounded, when the warrant was in place was a technicality. As in, I am pretty sure it could have been gotten in like 2 seconds flat.

Oh, the severity of the crime allows the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to be ignored with the snap of your fingers? Please, just join the Democrats and bow out of pretending to be a Conservative. Frankly, If I am to be accused of a crime, I appreciate those protections. God save us from people like you who would give up essential Liberties for momentary security.

You also ignore facts. "2 seconds flat," huh? You ignore the fact it took six months of effort by multiple companies and one million dollars to break into that older tech iPhone 5c . . . but had they allowed Apple to do what they volunteered to do, yes, it would have probably taken a few minutes to allow Syed's iPhone to be unlocked using his AppleID, until the FBI idiots running the investigation had the County IT administrator change the AppleID associated with that device. Once they did that, no one could unlock it. It had to be cracked.

[Swordmaker]

That was a scary article, but someone should have come forward by now with a Supermicro motherboard with an installed spy chip. Has that happened?

Nope, not even Bloomberg. . . nor even an in situ photograph of a malicious chip on such a motherboard. Ergo, it never happened.

[Swordmaker]

Common "coupler" IC shown by Bloomberg
as the Grain of Rice sized IC Spy Chip
"hidden" on a SuperMicro Motherboard.

That chip on the finger tip is a coupler, a common, everyday use IC that is NOT by any means a surreptitious chip with spy functions. That is a bogus photo and unless Bloomberg Businessweek comes up with a compromised motherboard or even a photograph of a SuperMicro motherboard with such a spy IC in in situ, they ar blowing smoke and FAKE NEWS. No one else has, inspecting the millions of SuperMicro motherboards that have been installed in thousands of racks around the world found even ONE MORE (if Bloomberg even found one) compromised motherboard. Not one. Ergo, it never happened. . . . and Bloomberg needs to retract its story which is based entirely on anonymous sources.

Those named experts in the story have come forward to state they were misquoted, mis-attributed, or even ignored when they told Bloomberg's reporters their story and theory made NO SENSE.

The reporters asked what kind of chips would be found on a motherboard and one of the experts sent them a catalog . . . which included the coupler. He says he was surprised to find the coupler photo used in the story.

[bkopto]

Oh, I agree with your comments. My comment was in response to another’s comment that the hack had something to do with a compromised CPU architecture. I referred him to the original hypothesis (not that I believed it). Thanks.

[ctdonath2]

So the terrorist didn’t own the phone.
Owner had the password, which Apple would compliantly used to open the full data store.
But the owner & FBI didn’t do the obvious, which Apple would have assisted with.
The owner promptly change the password, then promptly forgot it.
The owner turned a simple warrant request into a nearly unbreakable condition.
Then the FBI demanded not a direct unlocking, but a tool whereby a great many phones would be rendered easily breached without warrant.

[cba123]

Thanks.

I sure wish we were making these things here.

But thanks for the post. I do not particularly trust Bloomberg.

But we really, really, really need to bring back production of these sorts of things, back to America once again.

Just saying...