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Apple CEO Tim Cook calls for retraction of Bloomberg's Chinese iCloud chip hack story

Cook denies reports that Apple has been hacked by the Chinese.

Asif Khan

October 22, 2018 9:20 AM

Frederic J. Brown — AFP/Getty Images

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is standing pat against Bloomberg in his denial of their story about iCloud servers being compromised by a very tiny Chinese chip. He recently called for the company to retract their story in a phone interview conducted by BuzzFeed News. 

"I feel they should retract their story. There is no truth in their story about Apple. They need to do the right thing," said Cook to BuzzFeed News in their recent interview. Bloomberg Businessweek had reported earlier in the month that as many as thirty tech companies had been compromised by extremely tiny Chinese spy chips. According to Bloomberg's investigation, Apple had cut ties with the supplier in 2015 when they discovered sabotaged hardware and notified the FBI of a potential issue.

Apple has never publicly asked for a story to be retracted, so this adamant stance is pretty surprising from the tech behemoth. Cook and other Apple representatives had provided responses to Bloomberg's questions regarding the potential hack and even went so far as to conduct their own internal assessment. “We turned the company upside down,” Cook said to BuzzFeed News. “Email searches, data center records, financial records, shipment records. We really forensically whipped through the company to dig very deep and each time we came back to the same conclusion: This did not happen. There’s no truth to this.”

Bloomberg has decided to keep their sources for this report anonymous, and the intelligence agencies are supporting Apple's denial. “Bloomberg Businessweek's investigation is the result of more than a year of reporting, during which we conducted more than 100 interviews,” a Bloomberg representative told BuzzFeedNews. “Seventeen individual sources, including government officials and insiders at the companies, confirmed the manipulation of hardware and other elements of the attacks. We also published three companies’ full statements, as well as a statement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We stand by our story and are confident in our reporting and sources.”

What do you think, Shackers? Is Apple trying to cover something up, or could Bloomberg have falsely reported all or part of this story? Let us know in the comments section. Apple will likely shift their focus to their latest Special Event focusing on Mac and iPad next week.

Asif Khan

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.