A Chinese military unit has been inserting tiny microchips into computer servers used by companies including Apple and Amazon that give China unprecedented backdoor access to computers and data, according to a new Bloomberg report.
The tiny chips, as small as the tip of a sharpened pencil and designed to be undetectable without specialist equipment, were implanted on to the motherboards of servers on the production line in China, the report in Bloomberg Businessweek said.
The chips were reportedly developed by a specialised computer hardware attack unit in the People’s Liberation Army, and gave hackers unfettered access to anything the server did, allowing them to potentially manipulate the server to steal data, contact other servers and alter operations.
“Having a well-done, nation-state-level hardware implant surface would be like witnessing a unicorn jumping over a rainbow,” Joe Grand, a hardware hacker and the founder of Grand Idea Studio, told Bloomberg.
The allegedly compromised hardware, sold by Super Micro Computer, which is based in San Jose, California and described as “the Microsoft of the hardware world”, found its way into the data centres and operations of 30 companies, including Apple and Amazon as well as banks, hedge funds and government contractors, according to the report.
The attack was reportedly discovered in 2015 by the US intelligence services, as well as by Apple and Amazon as the companies purchased servers made by Super Micro Computer. The report claims Amazon became aware of the attack during movesby its subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS) to purchase streaming video compression firm Elemental Technologies in 2015. Apple had reportedly bought around 7,000 Super Micro servers when its security teams discovered the chips.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
