DHS and UK's NCSC say they have “no reason to doubt” statements from Apple, Amazon, and others rejecting Bloomberg's story on China spying via microchips
DHS says no reason to doubt firms' China hack denials https://reut.rs/2ynLr0f Glenn Fleishman / @glennf : I'm baffled by this. The technical bits in the article seemed not quite right to my ear, but I'm trying to imagine how this could have gone editorially wrong given the scope across time and sources. Nobody on the record, but that's not unprecedented. Nicole Perlroth / @nicoleperlroth : It's my worst nightmare as a reporter, but I was also baffled after the Bloomberg NSA/Heartbleed story in 2014. That was also anonymously sourced and when I tried to match it, I could not find one single person who would corroborate even on deep background. Nicole Perlroth / @nicoleperlroth : Something is wrong. Blanket denials from companies, NCSC and DHS are v. unusual. The only precedent for this is a 2014 Bloomberg article, by the same author, which claimed NSA exploited Heartbleed, and was vigorously knocked down with zero follow up by Bloomberg or correction. https://twitter.com/... Zack Whittaker / @zackwhittaker : @elongreen Elon, I don't know. I wrote some analysis Friday that kinda plays this out on both sides. But this DHS denial really does seem to weigh against Bloomberg because DHS benefits from Bloomberg being *right*. http://techcrunch.com/... Zack Whittaker / @zackwhittaker : Plot twist. In a statement, Homeland Security says it has “no reason to doubt” statements by Apple, Amazon et al rebuffing Bloomberg's story on the “spy chip” story — effectively saying that the report was wrong. https://www.dhs.gov/... Iang / @iang_fc : Bloomberg doubles down with yet another article attacking Supermicro http://www.bloomberg.com/... Denials from all. At this stage, ONLY source is anonymous unconfirmable intelligence reports. Cui bono?