How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

As it turned out, the story was a load of bollocks. Bloomberg jornos are said to get a bonus when a story rocks some share values, and I think SuperMicro is now sending some sueballs their way.
 
Another aside, anyone know of any motherboard manufacturers based in the US?
Jabil Manufacturing in the Tampa area.
They build specialty computer products for the government purchased via a General Dynamics division.
There may be others I am unaware of.

As it turned out, the story was a load of bollocks. Bloomberg jornos are said to get a bonus when a story rocks some share values, and I think SuperMicro is now sending some sueballs their way.
Supermicro stock was decimated before this story even hit.
A US designer using communist manufacturers. What could go wrong?
 
After Snowden and NSA TAO details emerged. All you have to ask yourself.
Do you really think other countries aren't doing this too?
Big companies lying. Say it ain't so.
How many years has TAO existed doctoring up Cisco and Juniper gear?
If your waiting for the government to admit this actually happened then you have a long wait.

Bloomy is fake news but these hijinks aren't exactly groundbreaking.
Embedding a chip in a PCB is totally achievable. Maybe not in mass production but for Tailored Operations.
 
Jabil Manufacturing in the Tampa area.
They build specialty computer products for the government purchased via a General Dynamics division.
They also have assembly plants in Silicon Valley. I do not know who all their customers are, but I know that some US-based computer companies that are large suppliers to federal agencies use Jabil. I am not sure that Jabil is purely a US-based company though; they might very well outsource some of the work to low-wage countries.

Supermicro stock was decimated before this story even hit.
A US designer using communist manufacturers. What could go wrong?
I've been a small-time Supermicro customer for a long time (mid- or late 90s, I think). They build good stuff, nicely engineered to be efficient and feature-rich. Their quality control is a mixed bag; while the hardware quality is pretty good (sheet metal has edges deburred so you don't cut yourself, holes in PC boards are accurate enough so mounting points line up correctly, screws and mounting points are in sensible places), they are not consistent, and things like firmware versions or sudden changes in specifications can be very annoying. They're not Sun or HP, but also not no-name brand motherboard house.

But referring to them as a "US designer" is a bit wrong. The company consists mostly of Taiwanese people, has strong business ties to Taiwan, and also employs a significant number of people originally from mainland China. When working with them, you quickly discover that only a small fraction of their staff speak English. But working with them has always been pleasant (they're friendly, competent, and responsive, even if there is a layer of translation involved), and their products have generally been good for me.

Name a country that isn't doing it, and you'll name a regime that's no longer in power.
Exactly. The only governments that don't use espionage and insurgency are those that are too incompetent, or too poor to afford it. As an example, look at the Grand Duchy of Fenwick: they had neither good intelligence nor a functioning military, and yet ...
 
I have owned SuperMicro boards for 20 years now. I have two new X10 motherboards in front of me. On the boxes is printed Designed in the USA. Going into storage I pulled some boxes and all those also say Designed in the USA.

Also their World Headquarters is in San Jose California and thier campus makes up over 7 Office buildings looking at the map.
http://www.supermicro.com/about/contact/
Now I have never personally verified that the boards are designed here. I have to take their word for it.

I am not trying to attack SM. I love them. I could not afford a Dell or HP server.
Personally I am not sure that they were involved with these hijinks. Maybe they design custom boards for big cloud clients like Google and Apple. It would not be out of the realm of possibilities. Maybe they handle the contract manufacturing too.

In my opinion Amazon is being attacked by every intelligence agency as it is now a military target because of the top secret cloud.
 
If you read the story, it said that the chinese plant was contacted by the CCCP or the PLA, who then "requested" that the design be modified to retrofit the backdoor. Whether this story is false or not is somewhat irrelevant unless you own aforementioned hardware or stock, as I can assure you this is most certainly in practice in China, not to mention elsewhere... It's just easier to find it coming from China, as they hold a decent market share for manufacturing. I don't know the last time I bought a PCB that was marked "made in Russia" for example, but that's because the answer could well be never. Also, if the company is an international corporation there are certain situations where it could be mostly, or partially designed in Tiawan or the design could be "implimented" there, but legally labeled "Designed in the USA"
 
Designed doesn't mean manufactured and it would be easy to take those CAD plans and rewire a part in without anyone knowing.

Especially if your state has one of the largest military cyber warfare/intelligence operations in the world and has access to much of the world's manufacturing of said sector. What am I talking about? We all know the CCCP has too much integrity to lie.
 
Phishfry: I completely agree, their headquarters campus is very much on the northeastern edge of San Jose. I drive by there at least 4 times per week, and I've visited before. If their boxes say "designed in the US", I'm inclined to believe them, they wouldn't lie about stuff like that.
 
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