This has been known for a long time. What’s news is we aren’t doing anything about it.
What can we do? Seriously?
Semi-conductor equipment that used to costs tens/hundreds of millions soon becomes obsolete. It's still functional, just obsolete - so it get sold. Someone in China buys it - say from someone in Singapore. They then find an old processor, and de-process it (it's easier than you would think) and from the de-processing steps, re-create a "mask" to they can effectively counterfeit this chip.
Because they probably use no error-correcting analysis on their stolen design - they have a product with mediocure yield, and poor reliability. But, selling a 3 inch wafer that has virtually zero R&D costs, is made with obsolete components, and once that die is cut - is virtually untraceable ... what can you do?
The packaging house that sticks the die in a package doesn't necessarily know what part they are sticking in a ceramic package. They really don't care. Did the die get delivered as promised? Did the check clear? Ok, .. here are your chips.
Now, you label them with a counterfeit stamp, part number, lot number and sell them to a re-seller. Money in your pocket; and the re-seller is getting them so cheap, he doesn't care if 10% of them come back. Think of buying parts for $0.10 and selling them for $2.50 into a market where these part typically go for $5. They get gobbled up quickly.
Ever wonder why Apple iPods last seemingly forever, yet those cheap knock-offs you buy at Walmart fail after a year or two? Now you know why.