> If the FBI, or other intelligence officials, had reason to believe Supermicro hardware was compromised, then we would expect it would have taken less than a f

> If the FBI, or other intelligence officials, had reason to believe Supermicro hardware was compromised, then we would expect it would have taken less than a few years for this procurement to stop. From the perspective of someone who merely reads what experts write, that isn't true at all. If you have information on your enemy's operations and they are unaware, you have the information advantage and you don't give it up. You use it to monitor them, trace their activities: For example, where does the connection go? And where does the information go from there? Plant malware in whatever is sent back in order to trace who accesses it and maybe give you a backdoor, or if you can't do that plant false information and see where it turns up. Also, who is physically planting the PCB? Mine them, their activities, and social network for more intel. Also undermine your enemy with false information and by shutting them down not now, reactively, but at the worst possible time for them - when the crisis hits in the South China Sea or Taiwan, pull the plug on their intel or start feeding it false info. And in the meantime, avoid giving them anything too valuable. On one hand, undoubtedly I have massive blinds spots in my knowledge and the details are probably somehow wrong. On the other, I'm somewhat confident that many times, an intelligence agency would not reveal what they know and would do the kinds of things I'm discussing.