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New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

bloomberg.com

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Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

#111

Post by mc32 »

ajross wrote: post #96
pjc50 wrote: post #15

Finally a named source, but still no photos and the alleged hacked board is still not in the hands of a public security researcher. The "trojan ethernet connector" paragraph mentions similarity to an NSA implant, which appears to be this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog#/media/File:NS... I'm now wondering if someone found an NSA implant and misreported it as Chinese. We're going to end up in the stupid…

> Finally a named source, but [...] Indeed, insisting on evidence and reasoned argument is a good thing. > I'm now wondering if someone found an NSA implant and misreported it as Chinese. Sigh... If you don't know you don't know. You can't use uncertainty about the source of someone else's hyped conspiracy theory as evidence for your own nuttery. Stop it.

Who knows... but it is funny that healthy skepticism can transform into this kind of acceptance. First disbelief, then, well ok, maybe but if it is, it’s probably not the suspected entity, but an altogether different entity... it’s like multiplying probabilities but thinking it increases likelihood.

Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

#114

Post by djrogers »

jackconnor wrote: post #2

They don’t say what the hack was and definitely do not say it was one of their pins. Probably some truth here, but as hard as they try, does not seem supportive of their “chinese pin” theory. Very suspicious that this is related, I’m guessing they’re trying to do anything to cover their asses.

What context are you using the word ‘pin’ here? I’m having some trouble follow your comment as ‘pin’ doenst line up with anything I’d contextually assume you to be referring to.

Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

#115

Post by AJ007 »

mmastrac wrote: post #28

It seems like there are two possibilities to me: 1) Bloomberg has a number of sources that are mistaken/misinformed, but this is not necessarily a made-up story, or 2) Bloomberg is nearly correct (minus some technical details) but the US government is forcing these companies to respond as if the story is wrong - possibly because of diplomatic reasons. What is the likelihood that #2 is correct? (there are other altern…

Taking the writer's statements as truth, 6 out of 17 sources for the original Bloomberg story were government. Presuming the information was classified, each one of those individuals is risking losing their job and going to prison for talking about it.

What kind of conclusions the writers made from talking to the other 11 sources, what seniority they had, or even what companies they were from besides 3 from Apple, are anyone's guess.

I always am suspect when a government official or employee releases classified information. In some cases extreme moral outrage seems very plausible (Manning, Snowden.) The information is so startling the leaker decides they can handle spending much of the rest of their life in prison. In a much larger number of cases it is for political reasons (Libby, countless other stories where the source is never identified.) Many times, however, I suspect, the information is made up and then no laws have been broken, as far as I understand it.

Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

#116

Post by smurfysmurf »

I've seen several comments regarding whether or not Apple, Amazon etc. would deny the hacking if its true and if that is fraud or not. I work at Amazon now and previously was in the Navy, holding a TS/SCI. My firm belief is if such a hack happened, it would not be disclosed to anyone without a clearance, and the organizations that are denying it have no knowledge that it occurred. Furthermore if there truly was a compromise by a foreign nation it would be classified as a national security threat and subsequently classified and kept from public knowledge. Anyone who disclosed the truth would be at risk of loosing their clearance, job, and could end up getting the snowden treatment.

Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

#117

Post by Chlorus »

resters wrote: post #79
mmastrac wrote: post #28

It seems like there are two possibilities to me: 1) Bloomberg has a number of sources that are mistaken/misinformed, but this is not necessarily a made-up story, or 2) Bloomberg is nearly correct (minus some technical details) but the US government is forcing these companies to respond as if the story is wrong - possibly because of diplomatic reasons. What is the likelihood that #2 is correct? (there are other altern…

My take on this is that it's been fairly obvious for a long time that these kinds of attacks are possible (if not easy) with today's technology. One could design a microcontroller, for example, that was disguised as an 0805 capacitor and functioned like an 0805 capacitor, but also had other functionality. So why is this suddenly breaking news? It bears resemblance to most of the propaganda stories we have seen in rec…

> Our president has already been attacking China with rhetoric and trade sanctions, and this story is meant to turn public opinion broadly against China.

Ah yes, Bloomberg, well-known for protectionist rhetoric and support for Trump.

> top universities are 10x more competitive (or more) than top US universities. A citation would be very helpful here. And no, number of paper's published isn

> This is foolhardy, because China is led by a group of highly rational people whose policy responses to the administration's trade threats have been masterful and precise, and have conveyed with no uncertainty that China will not be bullied.

Citation also needed. They're so rational, they just detained the president of Interpol, have committed mass internment of Muslim citizens, and can't go six months without trying to ram NATO ships in international waters.

> but China has likely weaponized many aspects of US infrastructure via these sorts of supply chain attacks

Wait, what? So doesn't that mean the hawks were right to be suspicious? And that this really should be a national security concern? "This is all just a pretense to make people afraid of the PRC! By the way, you should be afraid of the PRC."

Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

#118

Post by kodablah »

ajross wrote: post #96
pjc50 wrote: post #15

Finally a named source, but still no photos and the alleged hacked board is still not in the hands of a public security researcher. The "trojan ethernet connector" paragraph mentions similarity to an NSA implant, which appears to be this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog#/media/File:NS... I'm now wondering if someone found an NSA implant and misreported it as Chinese. We're going to end up in the stupid…

> Finally a named source, but [...] Indeed, insisting on evidence and reasoned argument is a good thing. > I'm now wondering if someone found an NSA implant and misreported it as Chinese. Sigh... If you don't know you don't know. You can't use uncertainty about the source of someone else's hyped conspiracy theory as evidence for your own nuttery. Stop it.

>> I'm now wondering

> You can't use uncertainty [...] as evidence for your own nuttery. Stop it.

To wonder aloud should not be so demonized much less demanded to cease.

Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

#119

Post by noisy_boy »

This gets me thinking - what if this issue (assuming this is genuine and I'm starting to believe it is), is not limited to server hardware and more pervasive? What if this affects mobile phones as well? I'm looking suspiciously at my Nexus 6p made by Huawei.

Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom

#120

Post by mtgx »

mox1 wrote: post #65
ummonk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, particularly given it was against a US telecom company, the NSA would make sense as the source of the implant.

No that would make 0 sense. The NSA doesn't "attack" american companies with covert implants. They get FISA court orders that force american companies to attach their equipment.

The NSA has "attacked" internet infrastructure for many years before it became sort of legal (but probably still unconstitutional).
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