Chinese backdoors on Supermicro

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Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
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One could not trust anything from Bloomberg's for years now. Sad really, but to be expected from misguided capitalistic incentives for the lyricists at Bloomberg. Did the Chinese get caught in a single case? Maybe. But make no mistake, every agency with resources does this, if they think the information to be gained is worth it, and they are pretty sure they know where such a modified server will end up at. You just don't read it in the press, journalists and spooks have had a long tradition of a mutually beneficial alliance in the West. You read about it when it suits everyone. Everyone but the other side of course. Also this is not a measure sprayed willy nilly and then look where the servers end up. Only to find your implant now lives at a Texan gardening company, that needed an upgrade.

I haven't researched it but I can imagine there is political ambition to withdraw a chunk of manufacturing from China, to lessen our tech dependency on this country and its leadership. I hear Vietnam is nice. India also on the short list.

Also I don't think Supermicro was targetted accidentally. If you look at HPE's iLO 5 for example, their firmwares are signed and verified using public keys embedded in chip's ROM. Much harder to subvert than some simple AST2x00 off-the-shelf chips which Supermicro likes to use.

The good news is systems and operating systems appear to be so secure now, that such implants are necessary. Or they just don't have a suitably high up asset at their target. I doubt China or any of the other Top 20 do not have enough money to just buy someone working at Apple. But maybe they can't, because Apple already pays the important engineers so damn well, that this incentive is gone, vis a vis the consequences if uncovered.
 
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Dreece

Active Member
Jan 22, 2019
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When it comes to the 'media', always have popcorn ready and be prepared to read between the lines. Since the invention of newspaper, radio to television to the internet - disinformation has always been the primary perogative. It assists in the control and flow of wealth, the destruction and rise of corporates, political-groups right through to nations themselves - all relative. There was never a separation, it is simply the games of the rich, chess at an international very real level. The sheep are easy to manipulate, just look at how easily the masses believe bullshit.
 

Serverking

The quieter you are, the more you can hear...
Jan 6, 2019
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They’re back/doubling down:
Interesting to see Jordan Robertson didn't say a word for two years and now he is back again. So for 2 years what was he doing, did he just sit at home all day? Had to something else going on behind the scenes.