New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom —Bloomberg
What happened: After Bloomberg Businessweek’s report on the discovery of hacked Supermicro hardware by 30 companies including Amazon and Apple, new evidence has emerged that compromised Supermicro hardware was discovered at an unnamed US telecommunications company. Security expert Yossi Appleboum told reporters that the company discovered the compromised components and removed them in August. The Sepio Systems executive said he has seen similar hardware manipulations made by contractors in China, not just products from Supermicro. Appleboum also said that the source of the software is likely Guangdong, China.
Why it’s important: Much like Amazon and Apple, the two biggest US telecommunications companies Verizon and AT&T have denied that their hardware has been affected. Chinese experts have also expressed doubts that China could pull off such a sophisticated hack considering that it lags behind in chipmaking technology comparing to some more developed nations. However, US Senator John Thune has requested staff briefings from the Apple, Amazon, and Supermicro noting that supply chain tampering by a foreign power must be taken seriously.