Apple CEO Tim Cook demands Bloomberg retract its Chinese chip hacking report — 'there is no truth in their story' (AAPL)
- Bloomberg reported in early October that Chinese spies had infiltrated U.S. companies by planting microchips in their servers.
- Apple released a statement soon after denying the allegations, but Apple's CEO Tim Cook took it a step further and asked Bloomberg to retract the story, he told Buzzfeed News.
- Cook's comments are an unusually aggressive move by the CEO with respect to the news organization.
In an interview with Buzzfeed News, Apple CEO Tim Cook has called on Bloomberg to retract a contentious news report that alleged Chinese spies used microchips to infiltrate a number of major U.S. tech companies.
Although Apple had released a statement denying what Bloomberg found soon after the investigation was published, Cook's comment to Buzzfeed is the first time the CEO has spoken publicly about the controversy and marks an unusually confrontational move by the head of the world's most valuable tech company.
“There is no truth in their story about Apple,” Cook told BuzzFeed. "They need to do that right thing and retract it."
The Bloomberg article alleged that Chinese spies managed to implant tiny chips on computer motherboards made by Super Micro Computer, and used by several of the largest American tech companies, like Amazon and Apple. The chips were designed to provide secret access to the private data on the machines.
Since the report was published, a series of statements from government officials and information security professionals — including some named in the stories — have cast doubt about the report's main claims.