Chinese Military Inserted Tiny Microchips Inside Servers Used By DOD And CIA

Bad Idea: China Snuck A Tiny Microchip Inside Servers Used By The DoD And CIA

The Chinese military surreptitiously inserted tiny microchips no larger than single grains of rice into servers on local assembly lines in order to gain access to data networks run by U.S. government agencies ranging from the Department of Defense to the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an explosive investigation from Bloomberg. 

• A three-year investigation by U.S. government officials found that servers assembled for startup Elemental Technologies by San Jose-based company Supermicro reportedly contained tiny microchips “inserted at factories run by manufacturing subcontractors in China,” Bloomberg reported.
• The chips, independently discovered by engineers at Amazon and Apple in 2015, purportedly allowed hackers to “create a stealth doorway into any network that included the altered machines,” per Bloomberg, a Trojan horse that gave hackers a direct line into any sensitive network. 
  
  
• Elemental servers assembled by Supermicro are “found in Department of Defense data centers, the CIA’s drone operations, and the onboard networks of Navy warships,” per Bloomberg, and the revelation prompted DoD officials at the time to request a small group of technologists “to think about creating commercial products that could detect hardware implants.” 
• “Public documents, including the company’s own promotional materials, show that the servers have been used inside Department of Defense data centers to process drone and surveillance-camera footage, on Navy warships to transmit feeds of airborne missions, and inside government buildings to enable secure videoconferencing,” Bloomberg reports. “NASA, both houses of Congress, and the Department of Homeland Security have also been customers.” 
• News of the years-long infiltration of secure networks through the lowest levels of the global industrial supply chain  — China still manufactures the majority of the raw tech behind the world’s mobile phones and personal computers — reflects not just a coup for the Chinese intelligence community, but an alarming vulnerability of the U.S. industrial base.
  
  
  
  Chinas Ultimate Silent Attack Upon The US Military And Intelligence Agencies Indicates Something Much More Sinister And Damaging Is Still Hiding Below The Surface
  
  
  Bloomberg's revelations reported on an ongoing government investigation into China's use of a "tiny microchip" that found its way into servers that were widely used throughout the US military and intelligence infrastructure, from Navy warships to DoD server farms. The probe began three years ago after the US intelligence agencies were tipped off by Amazon. And three years later, it remains ongoing.
  
  Nested on the servers’ motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities, sending a shudder through the intelligence community. Elemental’s servers could be found in Department of Defense data centers, the CIA’s drone operations, and the onboard networks of Navy warships. And Elemental was just one of hundreds of Supermicro customers.
  
  During the ensuing top-secret probe, which remains open more than three years later, investigators determined that the chips allowed the attackers to create a stealth doorway into any network that included the altered machines. Multiple people familiar with the matter say investigators found that the chips had been inserted at factories run by manufacturing subcontractors in China. 
  
  Talk about an absolute technological, military and intelligence disaster! The excerpt below from this new story over at The Drive's WarZone illustrates for us the severity of what has just been disclosed with the following 2 sentences deserving extra emphasis: “Think of Supermicro as the Microsoft of the hardware world,” a former U.S. intelligence official told Bloomberg. “Attacking Supermicro motherboards is like attacking Windows. It’s like attacking the whole world.”
  
  A new report is alleging the Chinese government directly interceded to insert small microchips into motherboards from a company called Supermicro, that are in use in servers everywhere from the adult film industry to U.S. military and U.S. Intelligence Community data centers, which make them vulnerable open them up to remote hacks. If the claims turn out to be true, it would be an intelligence operation of historic proportions that would have far-reaching and long-lasting ramifications. 
  
   The components could communicate with external computers and download instructions from them, which could allow Chinese military hackers to compromise passwords and gain control over what the servers did. If the servers were used for sensitive tasks, this kind of access could have massive security repercussions.
  
  What is economically important, however, is how the Chinese military did this. They weaponized the complex supply chain through which most sophisticated electronics are built. That has huge implications for the world economy.