Experts question whether China has technical know-how to pull off chip hack
Tapping into a private server via the hardware would be a complicated process that also requires a degree of luck, says one expert
Some Chinese technology experts have expressed doubts about the veracity of the spy chip hack reported by Bloomberg last week for one simple reason: they do not believe China has the expertise to pull it off.
Microchips as small as a grain of rice were installed on circuit boards made by Chinese subcontractors working for San Jose, California-based Super Micro Computer (Supermicro), a major supplier of custom servers and the world’s biggest vendor of server motherboards, Bloomberg Businessweek reported last Thursday.
The report said Chinese spies exploited vulnerabilities in the US technology supply chain to infiltrate the computer networks of almost 30 American companies, including Amazon.com, Apple, a major bank and government contractors.
“It would be amazing for China if it could integrate internal storage, a CPU and wireless communications in such a tiny chip,” said Zhang Baichuan, founder of cybersecurity website youxia.org. “The fact is, China’s chip technology is still at a primary stage.”
Tapping into a private server via the hardware would be a complicated process that also requires a degree of luck, said Li Aijun, chip set head at Intellifusion, a Shenzhen-based provider of artificial intelligence technology designed to help police catch traffic violators.