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Bloomberg researching if its Super Micro story was wrong

by on30 November 2018


Hack investigates hack writing of hack


Bloomberg has continued reporting the blockbuster story that it broke on 4 October about Chinese spooks installing spy chips in Super Micro gear.

For those who came in late, the story claimed that Chinese spooks had slipped a chip into Super Micro gear which was used in various Apple datacentres.

Bloomberg's Ben Elgin has been ringing around Apple to get more information into the alleged hack. He has pitched his requests as getting to the truth of the matter as he was not part of the reporting team that produced "The Big Hack".

If Elgin heard from 10 or so sources that "The Big Hack" was itself a piece of hackery, he said he would send that message up his chain of command.

At least one potential source told Elgin that the denials of "The Big Hack" were "100 percent right".

Elgin also asked about the possibility that Peter Ziatek, senior director of information security at Apple, had authored a report regarding a hardware hack affecting Apple.

In an interview with the Erik Wemple Blog, Ziatek says that he'd never written that report, nor is he aware of such a document. Following the publication of Bloomberg's story, Apple conducted what it calls a "secondary" investigation surrounding its awareness of events that were alleged in "The Big Hack".

That investigation included a full pat-down of Ziatek's own electronic communications. It found nothing to corroborate the claims in the Bloomberg story, according to Ziatek.

Last modified on 30 November 2018
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