Apple, Amazon deny Chinese ‘spy’ chips into network

Apple and Amazon have strongly denied a media report that claimed a massive “supply chain attack” by Chinese spies planted chips in motherboards in data servers bought by these two giants among 30 tech companies.

Bloomberg Businessweek on Thursday reported that malicious chips — as small as a sharpened pencil tip — were planted by a unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to gain access to the supply chain of a firm called Super Micro, known as the “Microsoft of the hardware world”.

According to the report, Apple discovered suspicious chips in its servers in 2015.

The Cupertino-based iPhone maker replied it has never found malicious chips, "hardware manipulations" or vulnerabilities purposely planted in any server.

“The October 8, 2018 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek incorrectly reports that Apple found ‘malicious chips’ in servers on its network in 2015. As Apple has repeatedly explained to Bloomberg reporters and editors over the past 12 months, there is no truth to these claims,” Apple said in a statement.

“Over the course of the past year, Bloomberg has contacted us multiple times with claims, sometimes vague and sometimes elaborate, of an alleged security incident at Apple. Each time, we have conducted rigorous internal probes based on their inquiries and each time we have found absolutely no evidence to support any of them,” Apple said.

“Apple never had any contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or any other agency about such an incident. We are not aware of any probe by FBI, nor are our contacts in law enforcement,” the tech giant said.