Spyware chips in Chinese chips. Russia, be vigilant!
As the "BBC news", US intelligence agencies have confirmed the fact of opening a colossal tracking system based on chip inserts into chips supplied from China. Among about three dozen corporations that have come under attack are Apple and Amazon, as well as a number of companies that are contractors for the CIA and the NSA.
On the one hand, this, of course, is not bad when the two geostrategic opponents of our country converged on the hacker field (yes, China is an ally for Russia rather conditional, their maps with the image of Southern Siberia as part of the PRC, and no one canceled), however, on the other hand, this fact raises many questions in terms of ensuring cybersecurity information in our Fatherland.
Spy microchips were found embedded in the microcircuits of servers manufactured by the Chinese company Super Micro Computer. According to a group of researchers who submitted their investigation materials to the press, the activation of microchips occurred at the moment when the servers were mounted and began their planned work. Particularly unusual was the fact that Chinese foreign intelligence, apparently, could even change the parameters of the devices on which they were used through some of the installed chips.
As it has now become known, quite a long time ago, Amazon employees found (accidentally) chips of unclear purpose in chips received from China, and constructively, these chips did not carry any meaning. During testing, it turned out that, if necessary, such a microchip communicates with the controller and allows access to the computer's memory.
The conclusion of the American experts was unequivocal: the creator and customer of these devices is clearly of a spy purpose - the special services of China, since the absolute majority of the chips with these chips were imported from this country.
Thus, the American system engineers discovered traces of enormous hacker penetration into the processing centers of dozens of American companies, and it wasn’t breaking the “software”, but the hackers managed to integrate without breaking directly at the “hardware” level.
Add that the last few decades, Western corporations have been convinced that the supply of components for the IT industry, and even entire devices from the Third World countries is quite safe, since it was believed that the creation and implementation of tracking microchips is very complicated and very expensive development. In addition, if an attempt was made to introduce such chips, they would seriously damage the reputation of the exporting country, from which chips were imported to Western countries, and the losses of the economy of this country would be much more significant than the ghost benefits from espionage. However, the reality was different ...
Officially, the Chinese corporation Super Micro stated that it did not know anything about what had happened and had never done anything like it at its enterprises. However, in her press release, there is also one rather curious phrase that allows for quite different interpretations: “None of our clients refused to use our products due to fears of Chinese hacker attacks.”
The other day, the Government Communications Center of the United Kingdom confirmed in general terms the accuracy of the findings of specialists of American corporations. After the publication in the United States of data on the investigation of the shares of the Chinese company Super Micro fell to half of its value on international trading floors; Lenovo shares slowed down to 15% of their price, and the securities of a number of Chinese suppliers of IT components fell from 10% to 30%.
Focusing on the voiced information, business analysts predict a serious drop in demand for smartphones, tablets and computers made in China.
And although Washington has not officially provided public evidence of hacker bookmarks in Chinese devices and has not made any complaints, Beijing has already quite strongly denied the allegations from US private corporations and special services.
Judging by this reaction, we should remember the old Russian proverb: there is no smoke without fire!
On the one hand, this, of course, is not bad when the two geostrategic opponents of our country converged on the hacker field (yes, China is an ally for Russia rather conditional, their maps with the image of Southern Siberia as part of the PRC, and no one canceled), however, on the other hand, this fact raises many questions in terms of ensuring cybersecurity information in our Fatherland.
Spy microchips were found embedded in the microcircuits of servers manufactured by the Chinese company Super Micro Computer. According to a group of researchers who submitted their investigation materials to the press, the activation of microchips occurred at the moment when the servers were mounted and began their planned work. Particularly unusual was the fact that Chinese foreign intelligence, apparently, could even change the parameters of the devices on which they were used through some of the installed chips.
As it has now become known, quite a long time ago, Amazon employees found (accidentally) chips of unclear purpose in chips received from China, and constructively, these chips did not carry any meaning. During testing, it turned out that, if necessary, such a microchip communicates with the controller and allows access to the computer's memory.
The conclusion of the American experts was unequivocal: the creator and customer of these devices is clearly of a spy purpose - the special services of China, since the absolute majority of the chips with these chips were imported from this country.
Thus, the American system engineers discovered traces of enormous hacker penetration into the processing centers of dozens of American companies, and it wasn’t breaking the “software”, but the hackers managed to integrate without breaking directly at the “hardware” level.
Add that the last few decades, Western corporations have been convinced that the supply of components for the IT industry, and even entire devices from the Third World countries is quite safe, since it was believed that the creation and implementation of tracking microchips is very complicated and very expensive development. In addition, if an attempt was made to introduce such chips, they would seriously damage the reputation of the exporting country, from which chips were imported to Western countries, and the losses of the economy of this country would be much more significant than the ghost benefits from espionage. However, the reality was different ...
Officially, the Chinese corporation Super Micro stated that it did not know anything about what had happened and had never done anything like it at its enterprises. However, in her press release, there is also one rather curious phrase that allows for quite different interpretations: “None of our clients refused to use our products due to fears of Chinese hacker attacks.”
The other day, the Government Communications Center of the United Kingdom confirmed in general terms the accuracy of the findings of specialists of American corporations. After the publication in the United States of data on the investigation of the shares of the Chinese company Super Micro fell to half of its value on international trading floors; Lenovo shares slowed down to 15% of their price, and the securities of a number of Chinese suppliers of IT components fell from 10% to 30%.
Focusing on the voiced information, business analysts predict a serious drop in demand for smartphones, tablets and computers made in China.
And although Washington has not officially provided public evidence of hacker bookmarks in Chinese devices and has not made any complaints, Beijing has already quite strongly denied the allegations from US private corporations and special services.
Judging by this reaction, we should remember the old Russian proverb: there is no smoke without fire!
Information