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

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

#161
I doubt anyone will see my comment since I am a few hours late. BUT, I want to say, despite what bloomberg AND apple say, here is why I think Bloomberg failed on this report, and didn't do enough to PROVE their claims were accurate.

They made the flat out claim that AWS sold its Chinese infrastructure because of the hack. But this is flat out not true, anyone who actually knows anything about the Chinese goverment knows that AWS, same as Microsoft, cannot operate out of China. They are required to have a PARTNER to operate in China. I worked for Microsoft during the deployment to China, and we too had to have a partner. We were essentially "leasing" our technology for them to run it.

http://www.miit.gov.cn/n1146295/n1146557/n1146619/c4860613/c...

"According to the China Telecommunication Regulation, providers of cloud services—infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS)—must have value-added telecom permits. Only locally registered companies with less than 50 percent foreign investment qualify for these permits. To comply with this regulation, the Azure service in China is operated by 21Vianet, based on the technologies licensed from Microsoft.

Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet (Azure China 21Vianet) is a physically separated instance of cloud services located in mainland China, independently operated and transacted by Shanghai Blue Cloud Technology Co., Ltd. ("21Vianet"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Beijing 21Vianet Broadband Data Center Co., Ltd. "

So this to me proves that Bloomberg didn't fact check this story enough, and there are holes in it. Does this mean that China DIDN'T try anything? No, but this leaves me to question Bloombergs sources and not fact checking their reports, as there is obvious misinformation in it.

EDIT: I googled AWS China, and this is the FIRST link. https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/about-aws/china/

And at the bottom it covers all the same legality stuff. So again, its like they didn't even bother to research AWS China for 10 seconds.

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

#162
post #56

Is the following a possible explanation? * Random Apple engineer finds the implant. * Goes directly to FBI without telling boss at Apple. * FBI gags the engineer, says "Do not even tell your boss about this, it's national security and we're handling it". * Bloomberg catches wind of this (maybe the same engineer leaks to them?), publishes their story. * Engineer is now freaked, goes back to FBI and says "Are you reall…

It wouldn't be one engineer. Bloomberg says that they have three senior sources inside Apple.

What does "senior" mean? In the tech industry efveryone with 2yrs experience is "senior", and everyone on salary is an "executive"

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

#163

If it turns out to be false, should the SEC look into it?

Possibly, but in all likelihood, no. I know that some people here like to get hung up on literal interpretations and stated missions, but they really shouldn't . (Sorry, can't get into it here.) For many reasons, there isn't a lot of good that would come from them making a big deal about this among the general public. Feel free to see my earlier post.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18141186

Seriously, how is a public SEC investigation going to benefit the "integrity" of the system and "inspire confidence among investors"?

If the story is both fake and some grand market manipulating plot, most people involved are 1) going to hope that the public forgets that this story ever was; and 2) deal w/this privately.

But since some clearly disagree, I eagerly await your well-informed case.

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

#164
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's in the best interest of the US not to turn this case into international relations nightmare. > I mean, this is just intense now. On record statements from four different huge players in this field, clearly and forcefully stating there was no hardware-based backdoor inserted by PLA with regard to Apple and Amazon. https://twitter.com/hatr/status/1048859348489916417

Long story short, this is really wanting me to obtain the gerbers for the motherboards I use, and verify the parts on the board are the parts listed. This the basis of open source hardware. The next step is to obtain firmware for each chip, and compile and load it on all programmable chips. Again, but open source firmware. Then moving up, we need an open source OS, which we have. The last area is having open source s…

I wonder if you could solve the fab issue with some sort of xray based checksum that is reproducible by third parties (maybe universities?)

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

#165

Is it precedented for a news organization to double down like this in the case where a reporter just makes stuff up Stephen Glass style? Because barring a Stephen Glass scenario, what's fascinating here is that no matter which side is right, this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play. Either Apple was hacked, they know, and are denying, which is evidence of them being under the thumb of U.S. national secu…

The Clinton administration and CIA tried to deny the China-Boeing technology transfer incident. But others in the CIA were concerned, raised the issue and were later proven right.

I asked people in the CIA about the Bloomberg story and their response seemed to indicate that the story is real.

There’s immense pressure to deny this story for several reasons.

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

#166

Is it precedented for a news organization to double down like this in the case where a reporter just makes stuff up Stephen Glass style? Because barring a Stephen Glass scenario, what's fascinating here is that no matter which side is right, this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play. Either Apple was hacked, they know, and are denying, which is evidence of them being under the thumb of U.S. national secu…

The Clinton administration and CIA tried to deny the China-Boeing technology transfer incident. But others in the CIA were concerned, raised the issue and were later proven right. I asked people in the CIA about the Bloomberg story and their response seemed to indicate that the story is real. There’s immense pressure to deny this story for several reasons.

Care to talk about your background?

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

#167

Is it precedented for a news organization to double down like this in the case where a reporter just makes stuff up Stephen Glass style? Because barring a Stephen Glass scenario, what's fascinating here is that no matter which side is right, this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play. Either Apple was hacked, they know, and are denying, which is evidence of them being under the thumb of U.S. national secu…

The Clinton administration and CIA tried to deny the China-Boeing technology transfer incident. But others in the CIA were concerned, raised the issue and were later proven right. I asked people in the CIA about the Bloomberg story and their response seemed to indicate that the story is real. There’s immense pressure to deny this story for several reasons.

There's zero evidence at all, none, not one example of any of these hacked devices, it's all "someone I know seems to think this story could be real" which is propelling this whole BS forward based on stupid rumors and hearsay rather than actually evidence. Let's hold ourselves to a higher standards here.

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

#168
Something like this only happens when there is a rift within the elite/intelligence community.

Both apple and bloomberg are heavily back by intelligence and elite community.

Bloomberg would never have published this story without the approval or permission of some section of the intelligence community. And apple/amazon/etc would never have come out against it as strongly without the approval or permission of some section of the intelligence community.

Seems like after Trump's election, there is a war between globalist pro-china elites and the nationalist anti-china elites.

This story, saudi journalist story, north korea, china, russia, europe, brexit, etc... There is a rift within the elites. We'll never know the behind the scenes full story but it should be interesting to see how things unfold. Are we on the cusp of a global paradigm shift or will the old guard win and maintain power?

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

#169
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tim Cook would have to know. If there is something like a NSL involved, Apple's legal team would have already reviewed it. That same legal team would also be advising Cook on what he publicly says since he is an officer in the company. He could lose his job or be fined for saying false information in the press (think about what happened to Musk) so its in his and his legal team's best interest to only say true things…

> If there is something like a NSL involved, Apple's legal team would have already reviewed it. Apple's official statement clearly said, they're not under any form of NSL or gag order. The prevailing logic seems to be that US courts still believe the government can't force you to say something against your will, only prevent you from saying something.

I'm not saying I don't believe they could be telling the truth, but why should we should take their word for it?

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

#170

Is it precedented for a news organization to double down like this in the case where a reporter just makes stuff up Stephen Glass style? Because barring a Stephen Glass scenario, what's fascinating here is that no matter which side is right, this is evidence of some sort of mysterious power play. Either Apple was hacked, they know, and are denying, which is evidence of them being under the thumb of U.S. national secu…

The Clinton administration and CIA tried to deny the China-Boeing technology transfer incident. But others in the CIA were concerned, raised the issue and were later proven right. I asked people in the CIA about the Bloomberg story and their response seemed to indicate that the story is real. There’s immense pressure to deny this story for several reasons.

> I asked people in the CIA about the Bloomberg story and their response seemed to indicate that the story is real.

Like the Bloomberg article, your comment is unsourced - or anonymously so, which is only an infinitesimally larger notch better.

(But I presume you were merely being sarcastic; or trolling.)

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