Amazon and Super Micro join Apple to demand the retraction of Bloomberg's history on hacked servers

A report released earlier this month by Bloomberg Businessweek, according to which 17 unidentified sources have confirmed the infiltration of Chinese spies into the supply chain of microchip maker Super Micro, installing tiny spy chips their to control systems owned by nearly 30 American companies Apple and Amazon. Leaders of Super Micro and Amazon are now following the initiative of Apple CEO Tim Cook, and are publicly demanding a retraction of the story, the Verge reported on Monday.

Apple has denied history many times, including in letters to Congress. Cook told BuzzFeed News that there was "no truth" in the article last week, saying "They have to do what's right" and retract the article . Now Chief of Amazon Web Services Andy Jassy as well as the CEO of Super Micro Charles Liang have made similar calls.

"@ Tim_Cook is right. The story of Bloomberg is also false about Amazon, "tweeted Jassy. "They offered no proof, their story changed, and showed no interest in our answers unless we could validate their theories. Journalists were played or took liberties. Bloomberg should retract.

"Bloomberg must act responsibly and remove the unsubstantiated claims that malicious hardware has been implanted in our motherboards during the manufacturing process," Liang said. told CNBC's Steve Kopack. "… Bloomberg has not produced any affected motherboards, no malicious hardware components have been embedded in our products, no government agencies have contacted us about malicious hardware components and no customers have been contacted. reported to have found a malicious hardware component either. "

In a separate letter from Super Micro to the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained by the Wall Street Journal, the company added, "Despite the lack of evidence of the existence of a malicious hardware chip, we conduct a complicated and tedious review to address the article. "

The stock of Super Micro dropped after the original story.

While the denials are unusually strong – and that skepticism is built on certain topics – Bloomberg has confirmed the story, posting an additional account of security expert, Yossi Appleboum, according to which he had discovered a Super Micro Ethernet connector with bugging in the server of a major telecom. (Appleboum, however, also said it has already found similar equipment and that such security flaws affect the entire "Chinese supply chain.") Bloomberg also insisted that the denial DHS was not irrevocable because a separate agency, the FBI, opened the investigation. the material wiretapped, the registry wrote:

This is a plausible explanation. It is also possible that Apple and Amazon have wallet security guns that do not communicate with the larger company. They discovered the spy chip and worked with intelligence agencies. Such unbundling of companies would be a buffer for leaders to deny their activities or conclusions.

It is also likely that Bloomberg journalists made mistakes in their reporting and that the organization did not adequately verify the article. Or, they stumbled upon a misinformation campaign by the intelligence services and effectively reported its effectiveness among certain groups of people.

No physical example of the equipment allegedly disturbed has yet been found.

The initial report seemed to correspond to the other concerns of Western governments and companies that Chinese manufacturers could be compromised by intelligence agents. Best Buy, for example, stopped selling Huawei devices earlier this year, and Chinese companies risk being excluded from bidding on US 5G network extension contracts. US lawmakers also warned that Huawei's and ZTE's network equipment posed a threat to national security, although the companies involved denied the charges.

Chinese hackers allegedly stole trade secrets from American companies for years before a 2015 international agreement seems to calm the trend. (According to Axios, Dmitry Alperovitch, co-founder of CrowdStrike, said the cyberattacks appeared to have resumed since last year.) But many of the most recent allegations came at a time when Donald Trump's decision to trigger a commercial war had already strained China and espionage allegations have had the main impact in the short term to fuel the fire. In this sense, it has been difficult to separate truthful accusations from those that can be crude.

The big companies involved in claiming a retraction, the battle around Super Micro's super-hacking charges is likely to continue. In a statement to the newspaper on Monday, a Bloomberg spokesman wrote that 17 different people "confirmed handling of material and other elements of the attacks … We remain true to our history and are confident in our reports and our sources ".