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Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

reuters.com

211–220 of 355 posts

Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#211
post #155
post #28

Let's say Super Micro is right and there were no malicious hardware at all for sure. What are the consequences for Bloomberg for this incompetence? I mean, there needs to be something.. Just because you're a news organization, you can't simply escape with "Oh, my bad". This had real implications on stock prices of so many companies and wiped off shareholder value on many of them, including Super Micro. If Bloomberg's…

So, when looking at this, we have to remember that reporters aren't analysts ; they're not expected to have subject-specific background and make personal judgement calls as to what the underlying truth is. If you want that you can certainly get it - for a much higher price than a newspaper. That's what firms like Gartner are for. Reporters to a very large extent report what sources say . Their judgement comes in cons…

Most of the top-tier publications actually do make a point of hiring people with subject-specific expertise. I first noticed this when The New York Times' lead medical correspondent was identified as Lawrence K. Altman M.D., because he really had earned a medical degree before heading into journalism.

In my own journalistic travels, I've worked alongside legal reporters who graduated from Harvard Law School, Wall Street reporters who earned certification as Chartered Financial Analysts, tech reporters who majored in computer science at Stanford, etc. That doesn't make them instantly right about everything. But it does mean they have the training to parse conflicting claims.

I'm not sure about the credentials of the specific Bloomberg reporters on this one. But Bloomberg does have budget and resources to hire subject experts to report on complex subjects.

Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#212
post #28

Let's say Super Micro is right and there were no malicious hardware at all for sure. What are the consequences for Bloomberg for this incompetence? I mean, there needs to be something.. Just because you're a news organization, you can't simply escape with "Oh, my bad". This had real implications on stock prices of so many companies and wiped off shareholder value on many of them, including Super Micro. If Bloomberg's…

Nothing, just like nothing will happen to the outlets who are currently pushing this "Huwai is spying on everybody" narrative with not an ounce of evidence for it except for unfounded and unsourced claims by FiveEyes intelligence services [0]. Afaik that whole Bloomberg/Super Micro thing was similarly set up, referring to "anonymous intelligence/industry services", not even naming the company that supposedly did the…

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Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WRT the how could they get it so wrong question, I guess it's time for the obligatory link to Michael Crichton's essay "Why Speculate?" and his discussion of the "Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect" [1] Money quote: "You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either t…

AKA the Reddit Effect. Everyone on Reddit posts as if they know what they're talking about when, in reality, they only have a cursory knowledge of it and yet the entire site is somehow treated as a curated collection of high-quality, factual information.

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Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#214
post #28

Let's say Super Micro is right and there were no malicious hardware at all for sure. What are the consequences for Bloomberg for this incompetence? I mean, there needs to be something.. Just because you're a news organization, you can't simply escape with "Oh, my bad". This had real implications on stock prices of so many companies and wiped off shareholder value on many of them, including Super Micro. If Bloomberg's…

> Let's say Super Micro is right and there were no malicious hardware at all for sure. What are the consequences for Bloomberg for this incompetence? I mean, there needs to be something..

What are the consequences for a public figure deliberately lying?

What about accidentally lying? What if they are a private figure?

If we're going to have consequences for this sort of stuff, we'd need to lock up most of the people in government, and the employees of every single PR department.

Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#215
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if Bloomberg's story is completely true, Apple / Amazon / Super Micro might have no other choice, but to firmly deny it. Because in that case, it's United States vs. China, not just some publisher vs. a few publicly traded companies. When national security interests and international relationships between two largest economies in the world are at stake, it's not Tim Cook or Jeff Bezos, who get to decide, what ca…

You're claiming they can be compelled to lie.

Welcome to reality. National intrrrdts trump freedoms.

Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do threads like this on HN always have such a desire for retribution? Seeing a situation where one person/group does something that negatively affects another group without consequence tends to have this emotional response from emotionally healthy individuals. Where do you see a problem with this type of response?

> Where do you see a problem with this type of response? "It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind."

Or maybe a start to the democratic process to encourage lawmakers to discover nuance and legislate.

Or maybe a good place for someone with knowledge to show why it's a bad idea and what the arguments are that have been struggled with.

One person getting irked because another happily destroys reputation without any consequence is natural. Reputation is too important.

A single person wanting to see consequence does not create a mob that firebombs their offices.

Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#217
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is – if you have such an incentive and you are faced with the choice between reporting a boring truth or a spiced up lie, you will go for the later. And that has nothing to do with journalism anymore. It _could_ work – if the editors are espeically on the hunt for bogus stories.

This was the opening story on their homepage. There us no way the editors (and the legal department) did not scrutinize it thoroughly.

Just because it passes legal muster doesn't mean it's ethical. And I think that's one of the things that people are calling for.

Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have a reputation, to the journalist. It's not as far reaching, but you bet that journalist isn't going to trust that source again if they are caught lying. Or even that agency.

This is certainly how things ought to work, but it's far from clear that it does. A reporter on an international affairs beat can't possibly dismiss sources as broad as the State Department or CIA - which makes it very possible to rotate through mouthpieces as they're proven unreliable. (And that's usually when clear dishonesty is found, not just plausibly-mistaken claims.) And anonymity is usually protected even whe…

> A reporter on an international affairs beat can't possibly dismiss sources as broad as the State Department or CIA

It's actually worse, the power dynamics are completely lopsided: He/she can't disgruntle his governmental sources or else there's the very real possibility of being cut out of the loop/any access at all in the future.

Which isn't a great prospect for any journalist because you can't get any "scoops" when your competitors have privileged access to information.

Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WRT the how could they get it so wrong question, I guess it's time for the obligatory link to Michael Crichton's essay "Why Speculate?" and his discussion of the "Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect" [1] Money quote: "You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either t…

There really are some publications where you can read an article on a topic you're familiar with and they get it right. For instance I have a subscription to The Economist and sometimes their coverage is a bit shallow. And sometimes it repeats an expert consensus I disagree with. But most of the time the coverage is as good as it can be in the number of paragraphs allotted and sometimes it's downright excellent[1]. Y…

Funny I’ve had the opposite experience with the economist. Whenever they touch my area of expertise they demonstrate their substantial ignorance and inability to fact check even the simplest things.

Re: Super Micro says review found no malicious chips in motherboards

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WRT the how could they get it so wrong question, I guess it's time for the obligatory link to Michael Crichton's essay "Why Speculate?" and his discussion of the "Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect" [1] Money quote: "You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either t…

AKA the Reddit Effect. Everyone on Reddit posts as if they know what they're talking about when, in reality, they only have a cursory knowledge of it and yet the entire site is somehow treated as a curated collection of high-quality, factual information.

Don’t think HN is any different.
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