Chinese intelligence agencies have long spied on 30 of the largest US corporations, including Amazon and Apple. And all thanks to a tiny chip that was built into the motherboards designed for the servers of these companies.
Initially, these boards were made in China, so it is not surprising that the PRC intelligence had the opportunity to install the chip there. Further, these boards were shipped to the United States for use in large government and commercial structures.
According to Bloomberg, citing its sources, microchips used by China for espionage on a catastrophic scale were found in these boards.
The Bloomberg report mentions the American company Supermicro, which works with suppliers from China. The number of clients of this company is in the region of 900 in 100 different countries of the world.
US intelligence agencies seem to have long suspected that China would use a similar method to spy on US infrastructures. The first evidence of such espionage was discovered in 2015, when Amazon employees stumbled upon microchips embedded in motherboards.
It is reported that a little later, the same chips were found in Apple.
Chinese intelligence, by hook or by crook (often with the help of bribes and threats), sought to integrate microchips into standard circuit boards. The device was placed as close to the controller as possible to provide remote access to its memory.
Now, it looks like the US has shifted its focus towards China as the country's main cyber adversary. What kind of invasion of elections is there when motherboards with built-in espionage devices arrive in the country.
