China planted micro chips to infiltrated Apple, Amazon servers, claims reportOct 4 (AZINS) A Chinese military unit has been secretly inserting microchips into computer servers used by firms such as Apple and Amazon, giving the Asian giant backdoor access to data, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

According to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek, the tiny chips 'as small as the tip of a sharpened pencil and designed to be undetctable without specialist equipment' was implanted onto the motherboard and servers while the units were manufactured in China.

The chips give hackers unfettered access to anything the server does, allowing them to potentially manipulate the server to steal data, contact other servers and alter operations.

According to the report, "Amazon reported the discovery in 2015 to US 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."

Notably, Amazon, Apple and Super Micro have all denied Bloomberg’s report. Amazon said: “It’s untrue that AWSknew about a supply chain compromise, an issue with malicious chips, or hardware modifications when acquiring Elemental.”

Apple, too, has denied any involvement. "Apple has never found malicious chips, “hardware manipulations” or vulnerabilities purposely planted in any server. Apple never had any contact with the FBI or any other agency about such an incident. We are not aware of any investigation by the FBI, nor are our contacts in law enforcement."

The Chinese government, too, has denied the report. A spokesperson said, “China is a resolute defender of cybersecurity. We hope parties make less gratuitous accusations and suspicions but conduct more constructive talk and collaboration so that we can work together in building a peaceful, safe, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace.”

China makes 75% of the world’s mobile phones and 90% of its PCs.