Amazon Offloaded Its Chinese Server Business Because it Was Compromised, Report Says (techcrunch.com) 56
An anonymous reader shares a report: It looks like Amazon's move to sell off its physical server business in China last year was because the unit had been compromised by a Chinese government spying program. That's according to a report from Bloomberg which details how the Chinese government infiltrated a number of U.S. companies by sneaking tiny chips onto motherboards from Supermicro. They then became part of servers deployed by the companies giving remote operatives potential access to data. It's a huge story that includes a comparatively small but important passage shedding light on Amazon's China deal last November -- the U.S. firm sold the physical server business to local partner Beijing Sinnet for 2 billion yuan, or around $300 million. That transaction initially sparked reports that AWS would exit China, but Amazon later clarified it planned to continue to operate its cloud services in China. Selling the physical server business, it said, was down to the fact that "Chinese law forbids non-Chinese companies from owning or operating certain technology for the provision of cloud services." While it is correct that China did introduce cybersecurity laws that placed restrictions on overseas firms and appeared to give the government unprecedented access to data, the Bloomberg report claims that Amazon's China-based servers were in fact offloaded because they were plagued with compromised servers.
Intel Management Engine (Score:2)
SO is amazon using intel chips? If so there's the intel management engine which is basically a backdoor that can do absolutely anything including run when the computer is turned off (but powered).
And now ... (Score:1)
... for something completely different. A story that references the previous dubious story!
So it's not a dupe, OK?? It's not, I tell you!
"Blodbank sells off blood due to contamination..." (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Remind me to avoid the Amazon Hospitals (tm) in the future....
If you're a member of Amazon Prime you will be guaranteed to be delivered to the afterlife in 2 days or less.
On one hand this discourages foreign investment (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
It's not about importing the pens. It's about economic warfare. They've been blatantly waging economic warfare and western presidents sat and waited for their treat when the bankers told them to. Obama, Bush, Clinton, exactly the same. At least Trump is acknowledging the problem, though probably only to piss off the bankers who ran Hilary against him.
Re:On one hand this discourages foreign investment (Score:5, Insightful)
For the last couple millenia, their general policy was "foreigners can come here to buy our (obviously superior) goods, but we have no need of, and no interest in, their obviously inferior (since not Chinese) goods."
Typical chinese games again (Score:2)
"Chinese law forbids non-Chinese companies from owning or operating certain technology for the provision of cloud services."
Gee, I wonder why?
The government thought process is obvious: We have done it to everyone else so we know it can be done. Therefore we are going to make a law so nobody can do it to us.
Trump is right (Score:2, Informative)
China is the enemy.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
And you believe China is the only country doing this type of hardware hacking (or any hack for that matter)? Like the three letter agencies have so much integrity that they would never ever do such a thing? Did you ever wonder whether it was those very agencies that did it in the first place and if caught, they would have plausible deniability as well as being able to put the blame on China? As Trump once said "you think our country is so innocent?" Think outside the box a little and don't believe everythin
Only bad if the Chinese do it (Score:2, Interesting)
Wasn't it confirmed by the Snowden leaks that Uncle Sam intercepts hardware during shipment to be compromised?
Re: (Score:2)
NSA, generally, works for the US interests. Chinese work for China — against US interests.
Pick your side — and stick to it.
Re:Only bad if the Chinese do it (Score:5, Insightful)
That is the NSA working for someone's interest, but certainly not ours.
Re: (Score:3)
Of course. Since the times of Alan Turing, to intercept the bad guys' communications, you have to intercept all communications — and then sift through them. Of course, some of that can also be used for internal needs, such as to sabotage political enemies.
That usage of NSA-intercepted traffic to help the entitled on
Re: (Score:2)
Wasn't the NSA found to be acting outside of its charter by intercepting US Citizens communications, like all of them.
That is the NSA working for someone's interest, but certainly not ours.
1) No
2) What country are you from? They're not supposed to be working for your interests. They're supposed to be working for the interests of the US Government. When you say "our" in a way that leaves out the US Government, and even leaves out any American who disagrees with you, then it is clear you don't even understand what the nature of the United States is, and what the nature of "our shared interests" are.
Re: (Score:3)
How about rejecting them both?
Re: (Score:2)
Go ahead, build your own motherboards — for servers, and other computers you use (including your cellphone). At least, in the US there is no law against that.
Re: (Score:2)
No. I mean I agree it would be interesting if true, but no.
You're probably remembering the first 6 months of reporting where they used the teaching notes from the UK people who didn't actually have access to the program details, but were assigned to write PDFs to try to teach it. That was the real scandal; they led with the mistakes instead of the truth, trickling out bullshit for an extended period of time before the real programs got leaked. And by then, almost nobody paid any attention. And so the intern
taxes (Score:1)
Stealth hardware has come along (Score:3)