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Apple's Tim Cook demands Chinese spy chip story to be retracted by Bloomberg
MSN News ^ | 8 hrs ago | Christopher Carbone

Posted on 10/19/2018 8:30:42 PM PDT by 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:

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apple; bloomberg; brucesewell; buzzfeed; china; cook; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; imac; iphone; macos; mediawingofthednc; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; redchina; smearmachine; spychip; timcook
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To: cba123
But we really, really, really need to bring back production of these sorts of things, back to America once again.

Like Ford, GM and Chrysler building cars in America again? Its not just smart phones that aren't being made here, its products in all categories. Its just that it's convenient for anti-Apple liberals on FR to go after Apple.

For what it's worth, Samsung is building chips for the new iPhone, in Austin Texas. They started building chips for Apple there back in 2011, and started up production this year for chips going into the new iPhone. Foxconn, an Apple supplier, is building a $10B plant in Wisconsin. Apple is already building computers here in the USA, has been for years, with many components made in the USA. News that is real but ignored.

41 posted on 10/20/2018 10:59:30 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: cba123

Here’s what’s going on with Ford, who has decided not to make cars here anymore (other than the Mustang for a while). They’re shifting production away from Mexico to China. Yes, Ford wants more of their products made in China. So how come no one on FR is complaining about that? We wish things were made here, but our companies are still going over to China.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/business/ford-focus-china-production.html


42 posted on 10/20/2018 11:05:24 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: Swordmaker; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; ...
When one orders a bloomburger in a restaurant, it always arrives, but the source is anonymous, and there's no meat in it.

43 posted on 10/21/2018 12:34:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: Swordmaker

Thank you for the electronic warfare ping.

I’ve already shared with my ping lists that the claim is not credible. FRegards ....


44 posted on 10/21/2018 4:02:28 AM PDT by Arthur Wildfire! March (News and poltiicians who ignore James O'Keefe are fake and evil.)
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To: Swordmaker

Dear Tim Cook.

Call us when you get your tongue out Farrakhan’s rear end. You know,, the Farrakhan who last week called Jews “Termites”, and who is still up on Icloud podcasts?


45 posted on 10/21/2018 4:34:58 AM PDT by BTerclinger (MAGA)
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To: Swordmaker

“Apple strongly demands that Bloomberg withdraw its bogus story”

Oh goodie, we can watch Apple’s millionaire, sodomite supporter of the SPLC (that, iIRC, consistently lumps FR with “hate sites”) go to war with billionaire gun-grabbing uber-schmuck Bloomberg.

“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,”

Because here on FR we ALL trust the Deep State’s security organs!
Have for YEARS!


46 posted on 10/21/2018 5:23:53 AM PDT by BTerclinger (MAGA)
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To: Swordmaker
You mentioned ‘reporters’ and ‘experts’ and provided no more evidence than your word. No sources cited, Not one. Ergo, it never happened. (I am playing by the same rules as you do)

The photo shows a chip with 3 pins. A ‘coupler’ needs more that 3 pins to function. An LED (2 pins) and a photo diode (2 pins) or a photo transistor (2 pins) are the minimum needed to make a photo ‘coupler’.
A coupler could be made with separate parts but they need to be directly adjacent to each other. The photo in TFA(the fine article) shows the part all alone on a PCB(printed circuit board).
Correct me if I am wrong!

You have tasked yourself with ‘proving a negative’.
Name the experts and reporters you offer as ‘proof’.
Name the catalog you claim the reporter offers as proof.
Name the specific part you are referring to as a ‘coupler’.
There are many thousands of common 3 pin parts that plausibly could match the photo, but a ‘coupler’ is not among them.
It is for this reason that I conclude you are ignorant of that which you speak.

Please note I don't think Bloomy has proved a positive, but it IS possible.
It is well documented that the commies counterfeit electronics.
It is well documented that the same electronics as often as not contain a backdoor. Stroll on over to DuckDuckGo or Bing(zing) and look for “shodan” for live streaming proof.

***Important tangent*** -> NEVER connect your security cameras to the internet without taking the time to consider the potential for abuse that is irresistible to script kiddies.

Methinks if this article had not ‘in your mind’ called your baby ugly you would also easily find the same flaws with the task you have chosen to personally undertake.

47 posted on 10/21/2018 1:40:36 PM PDT by Hermes37 (If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!)
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To: Hermes37

Blasey-Ford supporter much? Lots of experts confirming that Bloomberg faked the article.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/7453990/china-spy-chip-apple-amazon/

“However, experts have confirmed that images used in the report didn’t actually show the real chip at all.”

“Bloomberg’s Businessweek magazine published photos of the chips and the “motherboards” they were supposedly sneaked onto.”

“A major one is that photos used are not the devices in question – but rather stock photos of widely available type of computer chip known as a “signal coupler”.”


48 posted on 10/21/2018 3:31:57 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: roadcat
LOL,

I point out the fallacy of trying to prove a negative and your return volley begins with an ad-hominem attack. (a logical fallacy)

If accusing fellow freepers of demoncrat support WITHOUT A SHRED OF EVIDENCE is your opener you demonstrate the very behavior you appear to resent and attribute to me. Well done! :)

49 posted on 10/22/2018 12:18:30 AM PDT by Hermes37 (If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!)
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To: Hermes37
Well done!

Thanks. Sometimes one has to hold a mirror up to someone to reflect back how they appear to others. Blasey-Ford, no evidence. Bloomberg, no evidence. The article I linked to for you, has evidence that Bloomberg faked the story.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/7453990/china-spy-chip-apple-amazon/

50 posted on 10/22/2018 12:41:30 AM PDT by roadcat
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To: cba123

I’m with Apple and CEO caker in charge

Michael Bloomberg is a rat


51 posted on 10/22/2018 12:49:29 AM PDT by wardaddy (I donÂ’t care that youÂ’re not a racist......when the shooting starts it wonÂ’t matter what you were)
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To: bkopto
Maybe you should read the original Bloomberg article instead of guessing what happened.

Perhaps YOU should. Not a single Apple product is accused by Bloomberg to have been compromised. In fact, Bloomberg states categorically that both Amazon and Apple DISCOVERED the spurious chip on a third-party motherboard on a server from another third-party SERVER manufacturer both were thinking about using for their respective cloud services. . . not for their products. Try reading for comprehension.

However, both Apple and Amazon deny anything such as what Bloomberg claims ever happened. . . and no other cloud service using the same hardware has found even a single instance of a compromised motherboard among the millions that are currently in use. Not a single one. . . and believe me, they are looking to find one. Ergo, bkopto, it is FAKE NEWS intended to support the business that Bloomberg was and is currently pushing, Sepio Systems, which just coincidentally, or probably not coincidentally, is selling a software package to identify and alert network users of exactly such surreptitiously placed extra hardware. The SOLE source for their articles is the co-CEO of Sepio Systems, Yossi Appleboum.

Other experts the Bloomberg writers cited are coming out to state they were mis-quoted or actually mis-represented by being quoted completely out of context or leaving out them telling the reporters that the reporters' theory makes no sense at all.

Incidentally, that photo you linked is not the chip in question but a generic coupler chip. There are NO PHOTOS of the surreptitious chip in situ on the "compromised" motherboard. None. Zip. Zero. If they can't photograph one, it doesn't exist.

52 posted on 10/28/2018 7:27:17 PM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplaphobe bigot)
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To: bkopto

Sorry, I forgot I already had replied to your photo. I have been on a cruise for a week or so.


53 posted on 10/28/2018 7:29:53 PM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplaphobe bigot)
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To: Hermes37
You mentioned ‘reporters’ and ‘experts’ and provided no more evidence than your word. No sources cited, Not one. Ergo, it never happened. (I am playing by the same rules as you do)

So YOU believe Bloomberg. The reports and articles have ALREADY been posted on FR. . . so go do you your OWN research right here on FR, instead of attacking me with claims of made up "rules," asshat. . . go on using your rules. . . I will just ignore you.

The photo shows a chip with 3 pins. A ‘coupler’ needs more that 3 pins to function. An LED (2 pins) and a photo diode (2 pins) or a photo transistor (2 pins) are the minimum needed to make a photo ‘coupler’.

I did not select the photo, BLOOMBERG DID, DUMMY. The coupler (who said anything about a photo coupler) in that BLOOMBERG's photo used has SIX pins, three on this side, and three on the other. Again, go find the original article. . . There are couplers use on motherboards. . . commonly. Consider yourself corrected.

You have tasked yourself with ‘proving a negative’.

No, I have not. To prove me wrong, all anyone has to do is find another motherboard that is compromised in the same way. This was claimed to have been found by both Amazon and Apple (they deny it ever happened) THREE YEARS AGO. . . but not a single other company running these servers made using SuperMicro boards has found a single, read NOT ONE, other such compromised motherboard. I repeat, not one. As in NONE! I don't have to prove a negative, they have to only find more. . . and they cannot do it. That's a positive finding.

Name the catalog you claim the reporter offers as proof.

Prove you don't work for Bloomberg, Hermes37. I quoted that claim from one of the other articles not from a "reporter" but from one of the misquoted "experts" cited in the original article. You head is going further up your nether orifice, I suggest you stop pushing.

Name the specific part you are referring to as a ‘coupler’.

The one the misquoted expert says is perched on top of the finger from the ORIGINAL article. . . the one that is NOT pictured in situ in the original article. . . not once. . . which he stated in a secondary article also posted on FR, that he sent the writers of the original article the catalog. WAKE UP. . . use your head for something other than growing hair. A surreptitious chip on a US designed board is an EASILY FOUND OBJECT when doing a comparison. . . and it is NOT EASILY ADDED without a complete redesign of the various levels of the multilevel circuit boards. That is NOT TRIVIAL. Think about it. THERE ARE FAR EASIER WAYS TO DO THIS WITH THE ALREADY EXISTING HARDWARE!

There are many thousands of common 3 pin parts that plausibly could match the photo, but a ‘coupler’ is not among them.

SHEESH, Hermes37, you are looking at ONE SIDE of a three dimensional component. . . which has SIX LEGS, not three. How do you think that part stands on that finger without falling over, if it has only three legs? It ain't two dimensional.

***Important tangent*** -> NEVER connect your security cameras to the internet without taking the time to consider the potential for abuse that is irresistible to script kiddies.

YOU just proved my point. . . why use additional hardware when additional function can be added to the hardware that is already there? An extra chip on a motherboard is a RED FLAG that can be found with just cursory examination. This motherboard is a specific design DELIBERATELY engineered IN THE United States by SuperMicro which is wholly responsible for the QUALITY CONTROL EXAMINATION of every single one made. That extra IC chip would be found on QC checking which is done by computer examination on the first check for anomalies. It would NOT PASS. How hard is that to comprehend, Hermes37???? The circuitry traces would not pass QC.

Do you perhaps get that I actually DO know what I am talking about???

Methinks if this article had not ‘in your mind’ called your baby ugly you would also easily find the same flaws with the task you have chosen to personally undertake.

My "baby ugly", eh? Again, I find someone who suffers from a severe case of reading comprehension failure. The articles written by Bloomberg actually did NOT blame Apple or Amazon for this problem. . . and in fact gave them kudos for FINDING the surreptitious IC while doing due diligence before buying the servers from a third-party supplier (although the report is entirely wrong according to Amazon and Apple and the NSA, the FBI, GSHQ, and a host of other official organizations which should know and many other companies who use these servers with these motherboards). So, no, only people incapable of reading for comprehension ever called anyone's baby (except Chinese babies) ugly. . . but there we've uncovered YOUR irrational bias. . . and asshatted insane blindness.

54 posted on 10/28/2018 8:02:40 PM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplaphobe bigot)
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To: wardaddy

LOL!
Nobody knows what’s happened- at least to say in public.

More garbage about this from idiots than about the elections LOL!

Those who know aren’t talking.,


55 posted on 10/28/2018 8:05:13 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: Swordmaker

I was responding initially to the claim in post 25 that:

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

This claim is incorrect as the Bloomberg article said the hack involved a small, separate chip. I was telling the poster in #25 to read the article.

However, I in no way implied that the Bloomberg article was correct. You have misinterpreted what I said.

That is all.


56 posted on 10/28/2018 8:31:59 PM PDT by bkopto
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To: roadcat; Hermes37; dayglored
Blasey-Ford supporter much? Lots of experts confirming that Bloomberg faked the article.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/7453990/china-spy-chip-apple-amazon/

“However, experts have confirmed that images used in the report didn’t actually show the real chip at all.”

“Bloomberg’s Businessweek magazine published photos of the chips and the “motherboards” they were supposedly sneaked onto.”

“A major one is that photos used are not the devices in question – but rather stock photos of widely available type of computer chip known as a “signal coupler”.”

Thanks for posting The Sun link. I had not seen that one. . . I saw about a dozen others before taking off on vacation for a week on the sea which kinda limited my connections.

I find it interesting that Hermes37 just doubled down on his attack. . . ignoring the factual basis for my claims. He thinks I have to prove a negative. I don't. All that is necessary is for the Bloomberg Businessnews writers to come up with MORE motherboards and/or show a non-drawing motherboard with an in situ surreptitious IC in place that doesn't belong there compared to an authenticated SuperMicro Motherboard. Simple. Yet they have not done so. . . even in the original article. I have been looking for such a thing. Even their second article changed horses in mid-stream, jumping to a Faked Ethernet board covered with a metal heat-sink instead of a normal plastic cover, again an EASY TO SPOT change in the approved design. These are so stupid that even a cursory glance can find them. . . no spy agency worth its name would approve their use. They fail the smell test.

Yet, Hermes37, accuses me of false arguments and being in the position of having to prove a negative, that the Chinese did not do it. . . while there is no evidence they did except this FAKE NEWS ARTICLE from a known liar of a new source with plenty of evidence that they ARE lying now including from named sources publicly claiming they've been misquoted, misrepresented, and taken out of context. Absurd.

Incidentally, I retract my claim that the "coupler" is a six legged component. I blew that photo up and I can see that it is actually a component that has all of its connectors facing the camera. It is not a component that has legs that stick into a drilled board, but one that solders to pads on the board. I count 18 distinct solder pad contacts (3 rows of 6) on this side facing the camera. In multilayer board construction ICs often have area array packages such as this one which are soldered using alternative heating methods such as laser, infrared, vibrational, or inductive soldering.

57 posted on 10/28/2018 8:33:03 PM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplaphobe bigot)
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To: Hermes37

“Methinks if this article had not ‘in your mind’ called your baby ugly “

That says it all.

Apple is the most heavily dependent on China of all the US “tech” firms, though all are too dependent.
Testing and QA of boards is done at the factory that produces them, IE: contractors in China.

But whether this story is true is unknown. No one has a reason to tell the truth.


58 posted on 10/28/2018 11:27:44 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: mrsmith; Hermes37
Testing and QA of boards is done at the factory that produces them, IE: contractors in China.

You don't know that. They are shipped to San Jose, California, where they are inspected by SuperMicro. They have also been inspected by the manufacturers of the servers. . . much more so since this story has broken and not a single compromised server motherboard has been found. Not one, out of millions. NONE.

Both Apple and Amazon installed these specialized servers in their STREAMING VIDEO services. They are NOT used for generalized Cloud services. Streaming video is what Elemental Systems makes. . . and that is where supposedly these motherboards were intended to be installed. . . and what these high speed SuperMicro motherboards were designed feed. High Speed streaming video, not more mundane data which does NOT require handling large high-speed data dumps to multiple threads simultaneously. These were specialized for video. Amazon was installing them for Amazon Prime video and Apple was installing them for iTunes Movie and Video service. What was China going to get? Copies of old "I Love Lucy" episodes and the latest releases of last summer's movies, or Amazon Prime's dedicated content? There would have been little else on these feeds going through these motherboards to steal.

59 posted on 10/29/2018 10:30:44 AM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplaphobe bigot)
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To: Swordmaker

LOL!
ALL modern manufacturing incorporates QA at the factory. I guess if someone had absolutely no knowledge at all of production they could say otherwise.

Or they could just be being silly to be silly.


60 posted on 10/29/2018 1:41:29 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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