Security

Alongside its new hardware and software unveiled this afternoon, Apple has published a full security guide for its T2 security chip. The T2 is featured in the new Mac mini and Retina MacBook Air, and Apple is highlighting its many benefits in today’s security document.

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On the heels of Tim Cook’s comments at a Brussels privacy event this afternoon, Facebook’s former security chief is criticizing Apple privacy practices in China. Alex Stamos, who served as Facebook’s chief security officer from 2015 through this year, took to Twitter to voice his concerns regarding Apple privacy in the country (via CNBC).

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In 2017, a duo of security specialists: Braden Thomas, former Apple security engineer, and Justin Fisher, senior research scientist at Endgame, formed a highly secretive company known as Grayshift. They began selling a box which promised to unlock any password-protected iPhone.

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A tech consultant and journalist specializing in server hardware says that some of the Bloomberg spy chip claims are completely implausible, while others are simply impossible.

The analysis coincides with Amazon joining calls made by Apple and Super Micro for the magazine to retract its story …

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Super Micro Computer has told its customers that it will conduct further checks into Bloomberg’s Chinese spy chip claims despite the lack of evidence.

The announcement follows Tim Cook’s call for Bloomberg to retract the story …

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Apple has apologized following a recent spate of account hacks in China. The company said ‘we are deeply apologetic about the inconvenience caused to our customers by these phishing scams’, which it said affected a ‘small number’ of user accounts.

Although details on exactly what happened have not been disclosed, Apple said that the affected accounts were not secured with two-factor authentication. This allowed criminals to phish for account credentials and then extract money using apps like Alipay, as reported last week.

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Two weeks ago, Facebook announced that a flaw with its “View As” feature allowed hackers to compromise up to 50 million accounts. Today, the company is out with more specific details on the security breach and has shared exactly what information was stolen and for how many users.

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The weight of evidence that Bloomberg’s spy chip claims were based on a misunderstanding continues to grow.

An NSA spokesperson has said that the story had people ‘chasing shadows’ and even with the ‘great access’ the organization has to secret information, it can still find no evidence to support Bloomberg’s claims …

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The Chinese spy chip story continues, despite all the denials and signs suggesting that Bloomberg simply got it wrong.

A bipartisan pair of senators have written to motherboard supplier Supermicro acknowledging that the company has denied the claim, but nonetheless seeking answers to eight questions …

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Bloomberg said that its sources were key to its decision to run the Chinese spy chip story, the site writing that ’17 people confirmed the manipulation of Supermicro’s hardware and other elements of the attacks.’

However, one of the named sources – a security researcher who seemingly backed the claims – has said that his comment was taken out of context, and he actually told the site that what it was describing to him “didn’t make sense” …

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I wrote an opinion piece on Friday outlining the five reasons I believe Apple, not Bloomberg, about the Chinese spy chip story.

It’s a friend-of-a-friend story. The technical arguments suggest it didn’t happen in the way Bloomberg says it did. Apple’s denial appears unequivocal. The company has ruled out the gag order theory. And, if it were true, there would be no reason now not to come clean about it.

Since then, four further reasons to believe Apple have emerged …

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Following a string of denials from the company itself, “multiple senior Apple executives” have now spoken to BuzzFeed News regarding Bloomberg’s puzzling story alleging server infiltration by a Chinese spy chip. The executives, who spoke under the condition on anonymity, strongly denied the story to BuzzFeed and offered more details on the internal Apple investigation.

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Earlier today, Apple issued an incredibly strong denial in response to a report from Bloomberg, which alleged that Apple and a handful of other tech companies had some data compromised due to Chinese surveillance chips being found in a Super Micro server. The report noted that these chips were found on Apple’s servers sometime around 2015.

Following its earlier statement on the report, Apple has now published a press release on its website detailing what actually happened as it continues to deny the allegations.

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Bloomberg has today published a report claiming that companies including Amazon and Apple found Chinese surveillance chips in their server hardware contracted from Super Micro. Bloomberg claims Apple found these chips on its server motherboards in 2015. Apple is strongly refuting this report, sending out press statements to several publications, not just Bloomberg.

In a statement to CNBC, Apple said ‘we are deeply disappointed that in their dealings with us, Bloomberg’s reporters have not been open to the possibility that they or their sources might be wrong or misinformed.’.

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