DHS Releases Statement on Bloomberg Report on Alleged Server Hacking Incident

The Department of Homeland Security over the weekend issued a statement regarding a Bloomberg report alleging that around 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, have been victimized by a hardware hack carried out by a special unit of the Chinese Army.

The DHS said on Oct. 6 that it was “aware of the media reports of a technology supply chain compromise” but that “at this time we have no reason to doubt the statements from the companies named in the story.”

Bloomberg reported on Oct. 4 that operatives belonging to the People’s Liberation Army had compromised servers assembled by Super Micro Computer, Inc. by installing microchips that could allow attackers to remotely gain control of the equipment.

Among the many companies that used SMCI’s servers were Apple and Amazon, both of which discovered the suspicious chips in 2015 then reported their findings to authorities, Bloomberg said.

In response to the story, SMCI has issued a statement saying it “strongly refutes reports that servers it sold to customers contained malicious microchips in the motherboards of those systems.”

Apple and Amazon have denied the Bloomberg story as well.