U.S. Tech Giant Supermicro Denies Report That China Infiltrated Its Computer Hardware

In a new letter to senators this week, motherboard manufacturer Supermicro denied a report that its computer hardware had been compromised by Chinese spies who allegedly installed microchips onto equipment that was then sold to tech giants and telecommunications companies including Apple and Amazon.

The letter, sent to Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), was in response to a request from the senators for more information about a Bloomberg Businessweek report detailing how Supermicro had sold the allegedly compromised equipment to those companies, allowing the Chinese government to infiltrate U.S. computer systems and spy on Americans.

“With respect to the recent media reports, Supermicro has seen no evidence of any unauthorized components in our products, no government agency has informed us that they have found unauthorized components on our boards, and no customer has reported finding any such unauthorized components,” Perry G. Hayes, a Supermicro executive, told Rubio and Blumenthal. Hayes promised a more detailed response to the senators next week.

The Bloomberg story, published Oct. 4, has drawn intense scrutiny from lawmakers, intelligence officials, and the tech companies. Earlier Friday, Apple CEO Tim Cook told BuzzFeed News that the magazine should retract its story, adding: “There’s no truth to this.” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, issued a rare on-record denial, telling CyberScoop: “We’ve seen no evidence of that.”

Bloomberg has stood by its story, although the magazine published the denials—including one from Supermicro, a major international supplier—that it received while reporting the story. Bloomberg has not responded to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Beast.

If true, the alleged hack has been described by cybersecurity experts as a nightmare scenario that intelligence officials have feared for years, one that would allow a foreign government to covertly move hacked hardware devices into a commercial supply chain.

In an interview earlier this month, Blumenthal told The Daily Beast that his doubts about the veracity of the report sparked the senators’ letter to Supermicro, adding: “We have no independent knowledge.”

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