|
Bloomberg Businessweek on Thursday cited 17 unnamed intelligence
and company sources as saying that Chinese spies had placed
computer chips inside equipment used by around 30 companies, as
well as multiple U.S. government agencies, which would give
Beijing secret access to internal networks.
"We are aware of the media reports but at this stage have no
reason to doubt the detailed assessments made by AWS and Apple,"
said the National Cyber Security Centre, a unit of Britain's
eavesdropping agency, GCHQ. AWS refers to Amazon Web Services,
the company's cloud-computing unit.
"The NCSC engages confidentially with security researchers and
urges anybody with credible intelligence about these reports to
contact us,” it said.
Apple contested the Bloomberg report on Thursday, saying in a
statement that its own internal investigations found no evidence
to support the story's claims and that neither the company, nor
its contacts in law enforcement, were aware of any investigation
by the FBI into the matter.
Apple's recently retired general counsel, Bruce Sewell, told
Reuters he called the FBI's then-general counsel James Baker
last year after being told by Bloomberg of an open investigation
into Super Micro Computer Inc , a hardware maker whose products
Bloomberg said were implanted with malicious Chinese chips.
"I got on the phone with him personally and said, 'Do you know
anything about this?," Sewell said of his conversation with
Baker. "He said, 'I’ve never heard of this, but give me 24 hours
to make sure.' He called me back 24 hours later and said 'Nobody
here knows what this story is about.’”
Baker and the FBI declined to comment Friday.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Mark Hosenball and Joseph Menn;
editing by Sarah Young and Bill Rigby)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
