Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#31

Post by manfredo » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:50 PM UTC

fullshark wrote: post #18

stingraycharles wrote: post #8

It’s fascinating to see this story unfold. On one end you have Bloomberg doubling down on their claims, and here you have Apple making a move that shows their confidence in their claims. For a while I was buying the subpoena theory, but this action clearly doesn’t fall under that, and they would be setting themselves up for serious liability / damage claims if it were true. Either there is some gross miscommunication…

Given the hack involves hardware I'm quite inclined to believe Apple and all the strong denials.

I concur. If it really is a chip being inserted on a board, then that's hard evidence that can be verified by cracking open the hardware and looking for said chip.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#32

Post by eli » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:50 PM UTC

mohammedbin wrote: post #13

Something I posted elsewhere - I highly doubt Bloomberg would run this story without a lot of faith in this. Michael Bloomberg has strongly hinted at plans to run for president on a democratic ticket and it's in his interest to undermine trumps anti-china agenda and something you can expect his eponymous news org to help him with.

It's a reputable news organization. Mike ain't calling the editorial shots. It's possible that both sides completely and earnestly believe their story is correct.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#33

Post by buboard » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

fhood wrote: post #9

Man, I am now 90% convinced that someone intentionally misled Bloomberg. It looks like this may end up being an extremely embarrassing episode for them.

Could it be foreign propaganda?

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#34

Post by Rainymood » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

Remember that article where Bloomberg employees get paid more if their stories move markets? Yeah ...

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#35

Post by elicash » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:54 PM UTC

grillvogel wrote: post #26

guys the government and corporations all told us that it wasn't true, we have to believe them. they wouldn't lie about this.

Let me ask you the question this way.

What evidence would have to be produced for you to disbelieve the Bloomberg reporting?

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#36

Post by ghaff » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:54 PM UTC

newscracker wrote: post #12

With all the strong denials so far, my guess is that heads are going to roll at Bloomberg and that there may be retractions. Worst case, Bloomberg gets caught as publishing fake news endangering entire countries and companies, and closes shop in shame. There’s too much at stake for Bloomberg here. Hopefully someone at the top at Bloomberg is taking this seriously and looking at some quick and decisive actions. These…

I'm fairly certain that both Bloomberg and the companies involved have a high degree of confidence that what they're saying is true and have sufficient facts to prove it. That confidence would seem to be misplaced on one side or the other. If anybody had any real doubt they'd let this story die.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#37

Post by Drdrdrq » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

goshx wrote: post #29

fhood wrote: post #9

Man, I am now 90% convinced that someone intentionally misled Bloomberg. It looks like this may end up being an extremely embarrassing episode for them.

They have become a disappointment for me. A lot of misleading articles, paid promotional content, and so on. Now this one... I have blocked them completely from my social media and news sources.

Oh, so you know what the truth is in this case? Good for you! /s

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#38

Post by paleotrope » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

cirenehc wrote: post #10

moocowtruck wrote: post #6

i'd rather these big companies like apple faceboook google, to own up to their security breaches and waste less time on bloomberg crap

Allegations of a security breach is useless without evidence backing it up. So far, Bloomberg has provided zero evidence.

Yeah, someone needs to cough up a compromised board here. Otherwise the whole story stinks.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#39

Post by user5994461 » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:56 PM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #8

It’s fascinating to see this story unfold. On one end you have Bloomberg doubling down on their claims, and here you have Apple making a move that shows their confidence in their claims. For a while I was buying the subpoena theory, but this action clearly doesn’t fall under that, and they would be setting themselves up for serious liability / damage claims if it were true. Either there is some gross miscommunication…

There is no reason to believe than Tim Cook or any executive would be aware of anything.

In large companies with a hundred thousand employees and contractors, barely anyone is aware of anything.

Ask a thousand people about project something and they will assert in good faith that they have never heard of it. It doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, just that you didn't find the handful of people who knows about it.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Calling for Bloomberg to Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

#40

Post by jmull » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

parliament32 wrote: post #19

stingraycharles wrote: post #8

It’s fascinating to see this story unfold. On one end you have Bloomberg doubling down on their claims, and here you have Apple making a move that shows their confidence in their claims. For a while I was buying the subpoena theory, but this action clearly doesn’t fall under that, and they would be setting themselves up for serious liability / damage claims if it were true. Either there is some gross miscommunication…

>Tim Cook is not properly informed - which is very unlikely at this point Humor me, why is this unlikely? Why is it not possible that (whatever three letter agency) grabbed a few engineers, told them to do X without talking to anyone else, at the risk of them and their families getting disappeared to a black site? Besides, in security controlled jobs it's perfectly normal to not be allowed to disclose what you're wor…

Well, who scrubbed the emails? Who scrubbed the data center record? And the financial records and shipping records? Who hid the motherboards?

It’s going to take more than a couple engineers to cover this up completely.

Also, if the consequence for talking about this is being disappeared, why weren’t the Bloomberg reporters disappeared some time during the year they were working on the story?

And why exactly would a three letter agency do this to protect Apple?

It just doesn’t make any sense.