Bloomberg Report Says Amazon, Apple Data Centers Were Infiltrated By China

Apple, Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN are under fire Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government may have infiltrated the two tech giants’ servers.

What Happened

Bloomberg has reportedly found evidence that Chinese supplier Super Micro SMCI may have inserted unauthorized microchips into machines used in the data centers of Amazon and Apple during the manufacturing and assembly process. These microchips were allegedly used to steal trade secrets and intellectual property from Amazon and Apple.

Why It’s Important

The microchips in question have been the subject of a secret U.S. government investigation dating back to 2015, Bloomberg said. The report cited anonymous government and corporate insiders.

Bloomberg claims the unauthorized microchips were first discovered back in 2015 and were verified by independent security investigators. Apple removed all Super Micro servers from its data centers in 2016.

Apple and Amazon deny the reports.

“Our best guess is that they are confusing their story with a previously reported 2016 incident in which we discovered an infected driver on a single Super Micro server in one of our labs,” Apple said of the Bloomberg report.

Apple said the incident “was determined to be accidental and not a targeted attack.”

Amazon’s AWS said it has “found no evidence to support claims of malicious chips or hardware modifications.”

The Chinese foreign ministry also denied the allegations and said the country is a “resolute defender of cybersecurity.”

What’s Next

The U.S. is already in the middle of a trade war with China in which U.S. President Donald Trump has accused China of stealing U.S. intellectual property. If the Bloomberg story is correct, it could stoke the flames of the trade war and potentially lead to additional trade actions on Trump's part. 

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