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I'm not saying it's a fake story, but the US is in the middle of a trade war. It could be a huge piece of propaganda. The sheer audacity of that though would be

by Jedi72 8y ago

I'm not saying it's a fake story, but the US is in the middle of a trade war. It could be a huge piece of propaganda. The sheer audacity of that though would be staggering.

Analemma_ 8y ago
I don’t buy it. I know it’s fashionable to be cynical about the media at the moment, but Bloomberg is not a rag and it’s owned by someone who is no fan of Trump or trade wars. It doesn’t add up.
- longerthoughts 8y ago
  Bloomberg wouldn’t need to be deliberately deceitful - just misinformed by the government sources they’ve indicated they have.
- 21 8y ago
  It would be something Russia would do, plant a fake story to massively discredit Bloomberg. It would go with their strategy of launching so many fake stories that nobody knows anymore what to belive. The problem with this theory is that Bloomberg says all the sources were from the American govt.
  - CamperBob2 8y ago
    That's not really a problem with the theory. If anything, it's a supporting argument.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - prolikewh0a 8y ago
    Russia gave me cold and made me miss 2 days of work :<. It's definitely something they'd do.
- drb91 8y ago
  It also doesn't make sense to reject it out of hand—it's not like Bloomberg (or any paper) is an infallible source of fact.
- dboreham 8y ago
  Useful Idiots (said in the voice of Mandy Patinkin)
- TimothyBJacobs 8y ago
  The US Government and IC have lied into a war before, I don't see why now would be any different. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/leadup-iraq-war-timeline/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/leadup-iraq-war...
steve19 8y ago
If it was fake who decided that SuperMicro (down almost 50%) should be sacrificed for a trade war? Seems unlikely. If the story is not true, occam's razor would suggest the journalists just got it wrong, maybe by turning a molehill (couple of hacked servers or server firmware) into a mountain (industrial scale espionage) .
- inetknght 8y ago
  What makes you think it would be the U.S. pulling the strings? In trade wars you want the enemy to sink their funds. What could be better to do that than to force every U.S. tech giant to audit their hardware?
  - topmonk 8y ago
    You would sink your own reputation along with it. And there could be an argument made that you should be left the bill for the audits.
    - PakG1 8y ago
      In the parent's scenario, the initiator would be China. How would you make China pay the bill for the audits? By achieving the goals of the trade war, which was supposed to happen even without the audits? If China really pulled the long con like that, they'd win this round. But highly doubt they'd do that long con, there's too much to lose in terms of attack surface, like exposing your zero day to the world without using it first.
      - inetknght 8y ago
        ...and if it had been used first?
        PakG1 8y ago
        If it had been used first, then the story would be true, not false. Jedi72's original thought experiment is no longer a thought experiment, and there'd be no point in asking what are the implications if the story was fake, nor who would have planted the fake story.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
toyg 8y ago
The fact that it came out at the “right” time, doesn’t mean it’s false. Previous propaganda ops (uranium from Niger, 45 minutes etc) were much flakier while the stakes were much higher. I think it’s just a case of national-security actors sending out a message while leaving FAANG with enough plausible deniability to avoid tanking the whole market. As long as it’s semi-official, the only victim will be Supermicro, and everyone else will have received a message that they should pay more attention to their supply chain.

by Jedi72 8y ago

I'm not saying it's a fake story, but the US is in the middle of a trade war. It could be a huge piece of propaganda. The sheer audacity of that though would be staggering.

Analemma_ 8y ago

I don’t buy it. I know it’s fashionable to be cynical about the media at the moment, but Bloomberg is not a rag and it’s owned by someone who is no fan of Trump or trade wars. It doesn’t add up.

longerthoughts 8y ago
Bloomberg wouldn’t need to be deliberately deceitful - just misinformed by the government sources they’ve indicated they have.
21 8y ago
It would be something Russia would do, plant a fake story to massively discredit Bloomberg. It would go with their strategy of launching so many fake stories that nobody knows anymore what to belive. The problem with this theory is that Bloomberg says all the sources were from the American govt.
- CamperBob2 8y ago
  That's not really a problem with the theory. If anything, it's a supporting argument.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- prolikewh0a 8y ago
  Russia gave me cold and made me miss 2 days of work :<. It's definitely something they'd do.
drb91 8y ago
It also doesn't make sense to reject it out of hand—it's not like Bloomberg (or any paper) is an infallible source of fact.
dboreham 8y ago
Useful Idiots (said in the voice of Mandy Patinkin)
TimothyBJacobs 8y ago
The US Government and IC have lied into a war before, I don't see why now would be any different. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/leadup-iraq-war-timeline/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/leadup-iraq-war...

steve19 8y ago

If it was fake who decided that SuperMicro (down almost 50%) should be sacrificed for a trade war? Seems unlikely. If the story is not true, occam's razor would suggest the journalists just got it wrong, maybe by turning a molehill (couple of hacked servers or server firmware) into a mountain (industrial scale espionage) .

inetknght 8y ago
What makes you think it would be the U.S. pulling the strings? In trade wars you want the enemy to sink their funds. What could be better to do that than to force every U.S. tech giant to audit their hardware?
- topmonk 8y ago
  You would sink your own reputation along with it. And there could be an argument made that you should be left the bill for the audits.
  - PakG1 8y ago
    In the parent's scenario, the initiator would be China. How would you make China pay the bill for the audits? By achieving the goals of the trade war, which was supposed to happen even without the audits? If China really pulled the long con like that, they'd win this round. But highly doubt they'd do that long con, there's too much to lose in terms of attack surface, like exposing your zero day to the world without using it first.
    - inetknght 8y ago
      ...and if it had been used first?
      - PakG1 8y ago
        If it had been used first, then the story would be true, not false. Jedi72's original thought experiment is no longer a thought experiment, and there'd be no point in asking what are the implications if the story was fake, nor who would have planted the fake story.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

toyg 8y ago

The fact that it came out at the “right” time, doesn’t mean it’s false. Previous propaganda ops (uranium from Niger, 45 minutes etc) were much flakier while the stakes were much higher. I think it’s just a case of national-security actors sending out a message while leaving FAANG with enough plausible deniability to avoid tanking the whole market. As long as it’s semi-official, the only victim will be Supermicro, and everyone else will have received a message that they should pay more attention to their supply chain.