The pile of shit itself: https://web.archive.org/web/20181009013621/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies

Reddit reaction: https://www.reddit.com/r/news/duplicates/9lac9k/china_used_a_tiny_chip_in_a_hack_that_infiltrated/

(posted on reddit more than a hundred times, over 5000 comments spread out on every thread, back in 2018 this was a huge story… all bullshit)

Article detailing the aftermath: https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/10/04/editorial-a-year-later-bloomberg-silently-stands-by-its-big-hack-icloud-spy-chip-story

It really is this transparent when we look back at it all.

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    A friend of mine was at a technical conference and a vendor’s booth had a massive Israeli flag over it. That vendor? Using another company’s software to install a root kit on your servers. So basically, you pay to give Mossad a back door to all your shit.

  • IzyaKatzmann [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I want to run a bit on the hardware reddit-logo where I talk about how China is ahead of everyone in chip manufacturing and then point to this as my proof.

    To the ones who might say this is fake, I’ll call them tankies and ask if they think all the other stuff the US says is fake too. Like concentration camps against Muslims and Tank Man, while posting legitimate sources and denying their authenticity.

    I wonder if I could get anyone contrarian enough to believe me and read the sources. Sometimes I see users comment “you didn’t even read your own source” and I’m hoping some of them might. I feel the contrarianism might be stronger than their other prejudices.

    Any thoughts? Besides the risk of attracting right folks.

  • NotErisma [they/them, any]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I remember when this article came out- I was working in an RMA department for a third party company that made servers for Amazon and Apple.

    We specialized in the exact motherboard that this bloomberg article rattled on about. I dont know if this is worth bringing onto the table, but those units had extremely high fail rate. They either burned up or killed whatever components was installed on them (ECC Dimms were common victims). Also SuperMicro is based in San Jose and the founder is from Taiwan so…

    My co-worker and I suspect this was a streisand effect to get techbros wooed into or at least talking about the OCP (Open compute project - which was a few years old, but iirc was starting to hobble financially when this article came out)

    Even IF you took that tabloid at face value, wouldn’t China be selecting a board that doesnt cook itself after a 40 min burn-in test?

  • Einstein [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I cant comment on this story, but there have been instances of companies (not nations) setting up malware and spyware within the chipsets of things like android TV boxes. Sometimes the code is there to disguise lower specs and sell as higher spec online. Linus Tech Tips did a thing on it, as did a few other tech experts in the media.

    Thats the issue we should be worried about. China doesnt need to hack anything in reality. We post everything online anyway.

  • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    The actual details of this were so fucking stupid. This imbecile journalist basically asked some guy “hey theoretically could you put an IC in passive component” to some guy, that journalist took the exact part the guy used as a hypothetical, claimed china made a super secret IC that looked like a passive with no proof, then accused some random Taiwanese-American’s company as compromised (with some racebaiting too, “they got hacked because they speak chinese”). No super secret microchips were ever found but that company did go bankrupt iirc. But now they’ve done a 180° turn and Taiwan is supposed to be on the US’s side (don’t ask where all the TSMC engineers are moving tho).