Apple tells Congress that it has found no sign of microchip tampering

Re:Apple tells Congress that it has found no sign of microch... by AnthonyMouse on Monday October 08, 2018 @12:49AM (#18164202)

We still don't know what's actually happening here. There are a number of possibilities.

One is that there is some secret keeping happening. Either only a handful of people actually know and they aren't talking and the people issuing denials aren't them, or there is some kind of significant pressure from the US or China to keep this quiet and the companies are complying.

Or there could be some kind of misunderstanding. The story is half true but some details are wrong so people are looking in the wrong places or asking the wrong people. This happens sometimes with anonymous sources. You get fifteen people confirming most of the details but only one is offering the name of the company or some specific detail of the attack and that person got that detail wrong, something like that.

Or the entire story could be unadulterated crap. The problem with this one is that we can't ever be really sure it was the case, and it will be at least a couple of months without any form of hard evidence or corroboration before it makes sense for people to stop looking for it.

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Re:Apple tells Congress that it has found no sign of microch... by Johnny555 on Monday October 08, 2018 @12:56AM (#18164228)

One other possibility -- someone wanted make China look bad and made up the whole story... and had enough resources to paint a plausible enough story that Bloomberg believed it.

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Re:Apple tells Congress that it has found no sign of microch... by Inconel on Monday October 08, 2018 @01:03AM (#18164250)

This is certainly a possibility, but I would assume someone with the resources to pull this off is smart enough to realize that it would quickly be discovered if the whole thing is bs, especially as the story involves some of the US's most valuable and powerful companies.

Also, why the need to make up a false story to make China look bad? There are plenty real issues that make China look bad. Before I get accused of some anti-China bias, the same could be said of the US. If I wanted to make the US look bad I'd focus on any myriad of foreign policy or domestic concerns that show it's failings before I concocted a story that would soon be discovered to be a fabrication.

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Re:Apple tells Congress that it has found no sign of microch... by AnthonyMouse on Monday October 08, 2018 @01:16AM (#18164284)

But that seems even more bizarre. Who has the resources to do that but not the resources to come up with a cleaner frame up than this? If the aim is to make China look bad, why target a US company (Supermicro) instead of a Chinese company like Huawei or Lenovo?

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Re:Apple tells Congress that it has found no sign of microch... by Johnny555 on Monday October 08, 2018 @12:06PM (#18168641)

If the responsible party is not American (or is American but has a vendetta against America too), then why not? After all, the allegations said that some very high profile American companies were compromised from the hack, so why not involve another one?

Besides, it's more shocking if the Chinese hacked an American manufacturer rather than a Chinese one (where they would't necessarily have to "hack" anything, just compel the manufacturer to do it)

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Re:Apple tells Congress that it has found no sign of microch... by brorfred on Monday October 08, 2018 @01:36AM (#18164359)

The most extraordinary part of Bloomberg’s story is that they have so many sources. How can they get 17 people to talk about something of this caliber? Especially if Apple and Amazon are constrained with gag orders to the point where they have to lie?

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