Amazon & Apple Hacked in Biggest Hack EVER? Masses of Chinese Made Computer Servers Contain Tiny Backdoor Chips?

in #news6 years ago (edited)

Bloomberg reports that China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies and targeted Apple, Amazon and US Spy Services to name but a few.

By placing a tiny, camouflaged chip onto the motherboards of large numbers of servers (via Supermicro - the 'Microsoft of hardware server technology') - 'someone' has managed to install routines that can bypass the entire computer security system to allow hackers to gain remote access undetected.

The attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain, according to extensive interviews with government and corporate sources.
Source: Bloomberg

All this allegedly took place via a company called 'Elemental systems' who make video processing systems that have been used by many major corporations and entities. Amazon looked into buying them and in that process, their 3rd part testers discovered the hidden chip.

Nested on the servers’ motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities, sending a shudder through the intelligence community. Elemental’s servers could be found in Department of Defense data centers, the CIA’s drone operations, and the onboard networks of Navy warships. And Elemental was just one of hundreds of Supermicro customers.

During the ensuing top-secret probe, which remains open more than three years later, investigators determined that the chips allowed the attackers to create a stealth doorway into any network that included the altered machines. Multiple people familiar with the matter say investigators found that the chips had been inserted at factories run by manufacturing subcontractors in China.

Investigators claim that the hack was the result of covert actions of China's Army (PLA).

In response to this claim, the Chinese Government issued a statement:

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a statement that said “China is a resolute defender of cybersecurity.” The ministry added that in 2011, China proposed international guarantees on hardware security along with other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security body. The statement concluded, “We hope parties make less gratuitous accusations and suspicions but conduct more constructive talk and collaboration so that we can work together in building a peaceful, safe, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace.”

As it turns out, Amazon and Apple apparently knew about this for a while as the issue was covertly investigated and eventually dropped using Supermicro as a supplier and removed all their servers from use!

This is really a huge story, perhaps the biggest hack ever!

Intel Backdoor


I might be mistaken, but i think this hack approach makes use of the remote control system that recent generations of motherboards and CPUs have had built into them to allow admins to make changes to the pc even when powered down.

When these came in a few years ago, I and others were pointing out the huge security risk this presents and were speculating that the western 'secret services' would be using them to spy on whoever they wanted to. It was impractical to stay using old hardware forever, so eventually people upgraded and the weakpoints proliferated.

So from my perspective, while this hack may well have been initiated by Chinese government/military teams - it was perhaps entirely made possible by the big computer component manufacturers - ignoring security needs...

What do you think?

Wishing you well,
Ura Soul


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Is this not "fake MSM news?"

There is no truth in their story about Apple,' Cook told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview. 'They need to do that right thing and retract it.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6296239/Tim-Cook-calls-Bloomberg-retract-Chinese-spy-chip-claims.html

Well, I don't know for sure who is lying or wrong - however, I would fully expect such tech corporations to deny if this did really happen since they would lose credibility and profits as a result. Perhaps we will see proof one way or the other in the future.

I do know for sure that no mainstream media group or large tech company should be trusted blindly!

If I had a vote value, to take this down to a $0 value post, I would, as advertising for 1 news outlet like you are, deserves nothing, do not worry, I do not have that power, though you should consider the news you spread, your life, your choice!

I am not advertising for anyone here. This is a free commenting space and you can run their name through the mud as much as you like - it makes no difference to me.. I don't downvote for free expression that is not malicious in intent.

Do you not feel any responsibility based on reputation to think before you post? do you trust the MSM? If you do, do not even bother answering me, do you research who owns them? or just trust with blind faith? This place is insane at times, with so called free thinkers, parroting the MSM they distrust, yet being them, in disguise.

You might notice that I wrote a question mark in the title twice. I do not know the full details of this and therefore I remain open. I do not blindly trust anyone and I also do not blindly deny information due to bias of any kind if I can help it.

If Bloomberg maintains their claims despite potentially facing court action, then they deserve to be heard imo. It is true that mainstream media often spreads false information, but it is also true that they also break important stories from time to time - just by virtue of their reach and the people who are willing to speak to them. We can't know when they lie and when they tell the truth if we don't listen to them.

Yes, if no-one listened to them ever, then the whistleblowers would have to go somewhere else - but I know very well that the so called 'alt-media' is often woefully under-researched too. It falls on us to work together to expose the truth as best we can using logic, research and whatever tools we have.

Know thy sources, research them before parroting them, research why?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomberg_L.P.

I am aware of who Bloomberg are - yes. Either they will be proven right or wrong.

A lot of talk as to this being fake news but at the end of the day its entirely possibly and I would not doubt it. Who's know to what extent this is going on but it just shows the capabilities are out there and have been used for a while now 💯🐒

Absolutely. It has been known for a long time now that technology exists to allow computers to be hacked using sound! It is possible to literally listen to the CPU remotely and decode it's processing. I imagine there are other wilder options too!

For sure we know nothing of the real level of technology 💯🐒

Allegedly hacked companies denied the facts and Tim Cooked urged Bloomberg to retract the story: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-bloomberg/apple-ceo-urges-bloomberg-to-retract-spy-chip-story-idUSKCN1MT2Z8

Still good to follow up

Well, I don't know for sure who is lying or wrong - however, I would fully expect such tech corporations to deny if this did really happen since they would lose credibility and profits as a result. Perhaps we will see proof one way or the other in the future.

that's exactly what I think , we should have a blockchain with a coin that everyone could make a transaction with an article like this attached to it , a sort of smart contact so that people could fund the actual proces to have a serious investigation by the open source truth blockchain of the people to investigate the matter and come up with the truth as result. if we can't trust the corporations and the government systems then the the people should use the new technologie to have the truth been proven.
sincearly Benjamin

Gaining funding for open source investigation and work is a good idea - but in this case it might be difficult to achieve much as it might be dependent on the companies involved either admitting the story is true or independent researchers somehow gaining access to the servers involved - which is apparently really also dependent on the companies allowing access.

yeah that's true but if they have nothing to hide , and nothing is wrong then why not let a 3 party have a look . I can understand that they would protect there intellectual property .

As much of a control freak as Jeff Bezos is, and given the CIA/defense department are involved as well I am going to speculate they knew from the beginning about it, was using it to exploit (spy on everyone under those umbrellas) and if caught have deniability, it was those pesky Chinese. According to our politicians, it should all be fine anyway, one world order all holding hands singing Kumbaya together.

I suspect all groups who could exploit the situation would do so. Ultimately, behind the scenes I am pretty sure that all these groups answer to the same people!

I think it is kind of scary to consider what information these governments have on each other. I no longer think any of can keep the use of our devices a secret anymore and also work on the thought that everything we dobis monitored. It sucks and is not true freedom but its a reality we live with until we can move to a more decentralized society.

Sorry @ura-soul, you've been deceived my friend. This is FAKE NEWS!

You can write why it is so in my recent post NEOCONS + Q = – TRUMP.

One excerpt:

Furthermore, as Jason Bermas from WeAreChange.org astutely observes and states in a recent video, if such a hack occurred whereby thousands upon thousands of computers and servers were infected with this small (rice size) micro chip, why haven’t we seen even a single one taken apart on a YouTube video or even photographed for that matter?

How do you respond to this?

The story states that the investigation was allegedly covert and performed over several years - it was not public knowledge and the details were not considered desirable to be made public. At least that's my take on it. If no-one knew publicly, then videos would not appear on Youtube, no?

Thanks for your reply my friend.

If no-one knew publicly, then videos would not appear on Youtube, no?

Regardless of when it became public, shouldn't there be at least one person/company/disgruntled person showing a photo or video of this rice-sized chip in one of their boards? Why haven't we seen even one?

Doesn't add up my friend.

Always ask "Cui bono?" - who benefits from this story? Go back to my post, listen to the Pence speeches at the Hudson Institute and you will see that it is the NEOCONS so that they can continue to paint China as their next big boogyman. Not too difficult to figure out.

I am not saying I know all the details and anything is possible here since it is all taking place behind closed doors.. If true.
They claim that 30-ish companies were identified as targets and the research was top secret - with the hardware having largely been replaced without the issue being made public. It is common for employees in such corporations, in such sensitive situations to be both very highly paid and also tightly controlled by secrecy agreements.
There would be little benefit to an employee in such a situation putting a video on youtube and the cost would be high.
Btw, bloomberg described some of the chips as being the size of the sharpened head of a pencil, so tiny in comparison to rice.

Those are some rational points; makes sense. But what are your thoughts about the Neocons (and all associated think tanks) posturing against China? Surely, these are not disconnected.

I really don't have time to keep up with the latest moves and news of the 'crazies' of the planet any more.. lol
As I understand it, these groups will always vie for supremacy and posture to create fighting as their sub conscious imprinting tells them that it's the only way they can have any power.
It's certainly possible that all of this is connected causally, but exactly how is not clear.

Very interesting, I bet the US does this too.

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