Vancouver Off-Topic / Current Events The off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum. | |
10-08-2018, 03:18 PM
|
#1 | RS has made me the bitter person i am today!
Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: van
Posts: 4,530
Thanked 1,170 Times in 625 Posts
| China hardware hacks Amazon,Apple, and other US companies https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...-top-companies Quote:
In 2015, Amazon.com Inc. began quietly evaluating a startup called Elemental Technologies, a potential acquisition to help with a major expansion of its streaming video service, known today as Amazon Prime Video. Based in Portland, Ore., Elemental made software for compressing massive video files and formatting them for different devices. Its technology had helped stream the Olympic Games online, communicate with the International Space Station, and funnel drone footage to the Central Intelligence Agency. Elemental’s national security contracts weren’t the main reason for the proposed acquisition, but they fit nicely with Amazon’s government businesses, such as the highly secure cloud that Amazon Web Services (AWS) was building for the CIA.
To help with due diligence, AWS, which was overseeing the prospective acquisition, hired a third-party company to scrutinize Elemental’s security, according to one person familiar with the process. The first pass uncovered troubling issues, prompting AWS to take a closer look at Elemental’s main product: the expensive servers that customers installed in their networks to handle the video compression. These servers were assembled for Elemental by Super Micro Computer Inc., a San Jose-based company (commonly known as Supermicro) that’s also one of the world’s biggest suppliers of server motherboards, the fiberglass-mounted clusters of chips and capacitors that act as the neurons of data centers large and small. In late spring of 2015, Elemental’s staff boxed up several servers and sent them to Ontario, Canada, for the third-party security company to test, the person says.
Nested on the servers’ motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities, sending a shudder through the intelligence community. Elemental’s servers could be found in Department of Defense data centers, the CIA’s drone operations, and the onboard networks of Navy warships. And Elemental was just one of hundreds of Supermicro customers.
During the ensuing top-secret probe, which remains open more than three years later, investigators determined that the chips allowed the attackers to create a stealth doorway into any network that included the altered machines. Multiple people familiar with the matter say investigators found that the chips had been inserted at factories run by manufacturing subcontractors in China.
This attack was something graver than the software-based incidents the world has grown accustomed to seeing. Hardware hacks are more difficult to pull off and potentially more devastating, promising the kind of long-term, stealth access that spy agencies are willing to invest millions of dollars and many years to get.
|
__________________
Gold is the money of kings;
Silver is the money of gentlemen;
Barter is the money of peasants;
But debt is the money of slaves.
-Norm Franz
|
| |
10-08-2018, 03:22 PM
|
#2 | RS has made me the bitter person i am today!
Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: van
Posts: 4,530
Thanked 1,170 Times in 625 Posts
|
Apple, Amazon, and homeland security deny any threat. Which would be expected. https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/07/ho...y-chip-report/ Quote:
Homeland Security has said it has “no reason to doubt” statements by Apple, Amazon and Supermicro denying allegations made in a Bloomberg report published earlier this week.
It’s the first statement so far from the U.S. government on the report, casting doubt on the findings. Homeland Security’s statement echos near-identical comments from the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Center.
Bloomberg said, citing more than a dozen sources, that China installed tiny chips on motherboards built by Supermicro, which companies across the U.S. tech industry — including Amazon and Apple — have used to power servers in their datacenters. The chip can reportedly compromise data on the server, allowing China to spy on some of the world’s most wealthy and powerful companies.
Apple, Amazon and Supermicro later published statements on their websites. Bloomberg said it’s sticking by its story. And yet, this latest twist isn’t likely to leave anyone less confused, days after the story was first published.
Homeland Security protects the nation’s cyber defenses from both domestic and foreign threats. It’s rare for the government to issue a statement on an apparent threat which, according to Bloomberg, is a classified matter that’s been under federal investigation for three years.
The reality is that days after this story broke, it seems many of the smartest, technically minded, rational cybersecurity experts still don’t know who to believe — Bloomberg, or everyone else.
And until someone gets their hands on these apparent chips, don’t expect that to change any time soon.
|
__________________
Gold is the money of kings;
Silver is the money of gentlemen;
Barter is the money of peasants;
But debt is the money of slaves.
-Norm Franz
|
| |
10-08-2018, 05:52 PM
|
#3 | Hacked RS to become a mod
Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Sunny Hong Kong
Posts: 52,336
Thanked 23,816 Times in 8,190 Posts
|
How does a story like that gain so much traction without anything backing it up other than "sources" |
| |
10-08-2018, 05:55 PM
|
#4 | I WANT MY 10 YEARS BACK FROM RS.net!
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 20,390
Thanked 7,449 Times in 1,438 Posts
| |
| |
10-15-2018, 12:58 PM
|
#5 | Need my Daily Fix of RS
Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: YVR
Posts: 266
Thanked 132 Times in 56 Posts
|
supermicro shares were razed to the ground for 2 days
of course apple and amazon will deny to protect their financial interests Quote:
Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp How does a story like that gain so much traction without anything backing it up other than "sources" | the original piece was rather sensationalist, but Bloomberg is not exactly Fox News and they're doubling down with the Israeli and Norwegian intelligence also supporting the claims
espionage is srs business, even in recent years we're still seeing Russia poison dissidents overseas and China kidnapping ones from Hong Kong...so why wouldn't you conceal your identity if you can?
Last edited by R1CED`; 10-15-2018 at 01:07 PM.
|
| |
10-15-2018, 02:05 PM
|
#6 | OMGWTFBBQ is a common word I say everyday
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Van/Bur
Posts: 5,019
Thanked 1,557 Times in 511 Posts
|
10 years ago when I was in computer sales, we used to sell Supermicro boards to BC Hydro, i'm pretty sure they still stick with the same brand..
__________________
Cash Rules Everything Around Me!
Current:
2006 Honda Fourtrax Rancher 400cc ATV (Offroad trails + Winter Snow Plow)
1995 Toyota Tacoma (Toy Hauler)
2003 Honda Civic SIR (Daily Beater)
2018 KTM 390 Duke (Gas Saver)
2017 Subaru WRX Sport-Tech + STI 6MT (Weekend Track)
Past:
2014 Honda Grom
1971 MG MGB Tourer
Kayo MR125 Race Bike
2001 Honda Odyssey
2009 Toyota Corolla CE
2007 Honda Ruckus
2007 Husqvarna SM610 SuperMoto
2001 Honda S2000
|
| |
10-15-2018, 06:32 PM
|
#7 | look at these diamonds, they shining
Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Vancouver
Posts: 2,800
Thanked 1,813 Times in 553 Posts
|
Huge if true
|
| | |
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts HTML code is Off | | | All times are GMT -8. The time now is 08:32 PM. |