Another Bloomberg report, another supply-chain issue

In a story from 9th October, Bloomberg tells us of New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom.

“A major U.S. telecommunications company discovered manipulated hardware from Super Micro Computer Inc. in its network and removed it in August, fresh evidence of tampering in China of critical technology components bound for the U.S., according to a security expert working for the telecom company.”

The tampering described differs from that in Bloomberg’s previous report. This one describes an ‘implant’ in a server’s Ethernet connector. The communications company has not been named, but the report is based on information from Yossi Appleboum, described as “co-chief executive officer of Sepio Systems”, who suggests that this approach to snooping has been seen in other equipment supplied by China, while Bloomberg compares it to manipulations used by the NSA.

Commentary from The Verge: Tampered Chinese Ethernet port used to hack ‘major US telecom,’ says Bloomberg report.

Whatever the truth is of this story, it seems to go far beyond Apple, so also published on the AVIEN blog.

David Harley