The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies


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.

.............Much More at the Link...........

Looks like the commies have been discovered stealing technology, with plans to continue for a very very long time.

This is what happens when you sell out America, for cheap crap made in China.

This is huge.

What do you think?

 

That was a very interesting read, thanks for posting this.

This is very very bad news for the United States DoD and the rest of our agencies that use equipment made in China.

 

Its gonna be really really bad for Chinese motherboard manufacturers....

 

" a San Jose-based company"

Its the factory probably where they did this. No idea if they can found out where or how this was done.

I hope so, time to shift that part of the process to somewheer lese i think.

 

I have always been opposed to manufacturing any of our computer components and sensitive technology overseas, especially in China.

 

Those who sold out the country for quick profits always sold global capitalism as a means to get prices down for the consumer. They never cared to explain that the short-term cheap prices come at long-term security risks, economic sabotage, and higher prices later on anyway.

 

Amazon continues to insist that this is a bogus story.

https://www.thestreet.com/amp/marke...omberg-report-on-china-hardware-hack-14733776

I think if we ever get the real story, it will be that NSA is responsible for the hardware, and the Chinese exploited it.

 

China stole the plans for the F22 supercruise stealth fighter.

The data is worth way more than the motherboard......

 

of course they do....

Theyll lose billions as everyone beats feet from their cloud.....

Trust me, its true.

Commies gonna commie....

 

Right. What's worse was that clues that this type of thing was happening was everywhere. Matter of fact, they've been accused of stealing and copying for decades. All the political elite can say is bu-bu-bu cheaper prices!

 

https://www.infoworld.com/article/2...-nsa-planted-backdoors-in-cisco-products.html

https://www.wired.com/2014/03/how-huawei-became-nsa-nightmare/

https://thenationalsentinel.com/201...t-warns-of-increased-risk-to-civil-liberties/


Says gonna spy.

 

If it is bogus, they would be in litigation, surely, given the ramifications involved. As well as the manufacturers involved. That is what common sense would tell anyone. Denying it just seems a bit too lacking in response.

 

nerds will be the death of us all.

 

Frankly, I am unsure how anyone is going to meaningfully reign in China. Case in point, I paint models for commissions for tabletop games; the company that manufactures them has been increasing prices every year to the point of absurdity. Chinese folks began recasting these figures and selling them at 40%msrp.

Theft of IP is a real problem but in a truly global economy, I am not sure what they will do. The internet is even harder. How is anyone going to stop this?

 

The NSA compels large companies to remain exploitable, and demands secrecy at the end of a gun. Dont know how deep they are gonna be willing to dive on this.

 

China basically commits acts of war on a daily basis but we just have to take it and suck it up because a military war is even more damaging than what they're doing. The sad part is they have NOTHING worth stealing. We can't get them back in the same way, because China can't design a damn thing unique or groundbreaking. Everything they do is a copy or they simply buy the startup or tech company of choice who can't say no to the cash. Just imagine if one day their people truly wake up and realize communism isn't so much fun.

 

With actual security, which no government actually wants... and why we dont have any.

 

If we dont buy anything from China, we win, China loses.

 

In theory. But who's manufacturing everything? Don't think there are enough alternatives. They win by using unfair work practices. We can NEVER compete with them, as long as their people are willing to work slave wages. It would be fantastic if we could have 10+ million people manufacturing widgets here, but don't think that's ever happening again.

 

The left is always saying Trump started a trade war with china but the fact is china has been engaged in an economic war with us a very long time and stealing intellectual property is a big part of it.

 

Trade and stealing intellectual property are two different things.

 

It all ties together and is part of the trade war china quietly started years ago. It's like in a real war food isn't a bomb but can definitely be used as a weapon.

"For years, American companies have complained that the Chinese government finds ways to get them to hand over their most valuable trade secrets. Those companies — which usually complain anonymously, fearing Chinese retribution — have found a sympathetic ear in the Trump administration.

American trade officials on Thursday cited those practices as a major motivation for their plans to levy tariffs and penalties on $60 billion in Chinese imports and to take a tougher stance on the vast and lucrative trade relationship between the two countries. The report outlines in blunt terms how intellectual property — everything from product designs and sensitive data to general know-how — has become a point of contention in global trade relations, joining longstanding areas of dispute like steel."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/business/china-trump-trade-intellectual-property.html

 

A nation stops it quite simply... stop off-shoring your industry and employ your own citizens... DUGH!

Close the F*ing borders to anyone not following the RULES, and deport all those here who have violated U.S.!

Anyone who disparages the U.S., Capitialism, and America should be viewed with great suspecion, and not employed in critical industries.

Fire the freak'n Commies in our Universities!

It ain't rocket science!

-

 

I think there are people in the government sector who have responsibility for such things who are incredibly naive.

How is it possible they would not find what Amazon did?

 

They did find it. Amazon denies it, mainly because theyd lose all their business instantly, before they can change out the servers.