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Just to throw something extra into the mix - infosec podcast Risky Business managed to track down a source (apparently a trusted source of 15 years) who provide

Just to throw something extra into the mix - infosec podcast Risky Business managed to track down a source (apparently a trusted source of 15 years) who provided photos to them of what the source claimed was "extra unlabelled components on sensitive buses" they'd found on a teardown they conducted of a Supermicro board. And then, the source retracted the statement and said the photos were from different equipment, and that they didn't find hardware backdoors on Supermicro equipment. This page on the Risky Business site explains their correction in more detail. https://risky.biz/RB516_feature/ https://risky.biz/RB516_feature/ Generally Risky Business is pretty good (they had some great inside info on the "hack" of the 2016 Australian Census), so I find this an intriguing and interesting extra datapoint. If Risky Business can be misled this way, maybe this is how Bloomberg could be misled too.

brennebeck 8y ago
Not to go ‘too tinfoil’ here, but couldn’t that also imply the source was discovered and harassed/served a gag, or something of that sort? (Purely as devil’s advocate speculation)
- SyneRyder 8y ago
  I don't get that feeling in this specific case, but I'm wary of speculating. Patrick (the guy who hosts the podcast) and the source are probably the only two people who actually know. That said - listening to the podcast, where he interviews someone (who is not the source) and asks them near the end "Have you heard anything about this over the last few years? Have you heard any rumours or anything to suggest China is behaving in this way?" It is a really awkward silence and very nervous laugh, with a vague reply about having seen news reports. That bit is around 22:07 in the podcast if you want to skip ahead. Then maybe go research a bit about who the interviewee is.
  - brennebeck 8y ago
    Interesting. I’ll give it a listen. Thanks for the reference time as well.
  - pfranz 8y ago
    > Have you heard anything about this over the last few years? Am I the only one? I don't take my recollection on this as fact, but I remember a story from a year or two ago that a large company (like Apple, Google, or Amazon) would take photographs of the boards they ordered before they were shipped (likely from China) and compare it to what was delivered. The way it was described was more like that was their security protocol because of suspicions/risks of it being tampered with in transit.
- nil_pointer 8y ago
  How much of Apple's business is in China now? What about Amazon? Would Apple publicly deny these allegations to appease China so they can continue doing business there?

brennebeck 8y ago

Not to go ‘too tinfoil’ here, but couldn’t that also imply the source was discovered and harassed/served a gag, or something of that sort? (Purely as devil’s advocate speculation)

SyneRyder 8y ago
I don't get that feeling in this specific case, but I'm wary of speculating. Patrick (the guy who hosts the podcast) and the source are probably the only two people who actually know. That said - listening to the podcast, where he interviews someone (who is not the source) and asks them near the end "Have you heard anything about this over the last few years? Have you heard any rumours or anything to suggest China is behaving in this way?" It is a really awkward silence and very nervous laugh, with a vague reply about having seen news reports. That bit is around 22:07 in the podcast if you want to skip ahead. Then maybe go research a bit about who the interviewee is.
- brennebeck 8y ago
  Interesting. I’ll give it a listen. Thanks for the reference time as well.
- pfranz 8y ago
  > Have you heard anything about this over the last few years? Am I the only one? I don't take my recollection on this as fact, but I remember a story from a year or two ago that a large company (like Apple, Google, or Amazon) would take photographs of the boards they ordered before they were shipped (likely from China) and compare it to what was delivered. The way it was described was more like that was their security protocol because of suspicions/risks of it being tampered with in transit.
nil_pointer 8y ago
How much of Apple's business is in China now? What about Amazon? Would Apple publicly deny these allegations to appease China so they can continue doing business there?