We all know Bloomberg is not going to retract the story. They are just going to dig in further since if they admit they were wrong it will go against their credibility.
Credibility? Lol... what credibility.
The whole reporting/journalism/mass media institution are in shambles and corrupt. Nothing more than tentacles of the powerful to manipulate the masses.
As i keep saying if the media is doing stuff like this which should be pretty easy to get it right think about all the other things they are getting wrong which are far more subjective and people putting information out with agendas attached.
After reading this article I read your 10/10/18 article indicating how often in the past Bloomberg has denigrated Apple Computer products.
incredible!
However, I don’t think this is going to be excused by an ignorant reporter argument.
We must wonder what Bloomberg & Co’s real agenda is.
He governed NYC by often asserting the untrue then purporting to fix things but actually making them much worse. Of course you can imagine the shift in the flow of money.
We all know Bloomberg is not going to retract the story. They are just going to dig in further since if they admit they were wrong it will go against their credibility.
What of the inverse? Would highly secretive Apple ever own up to such a thing in public. Tim Cook responding looks like a tell.
The lesser of the two evils is to keep their mouth shut if it happen in any way shape or form. Making this kind of public statement has a much higher risk for bad things happen to Tim and Apple. CEO's of company tend to go to the lower risk side of a controversy. Also Apple has long track record of keeping their mouth shut on most everything. Only few times have spoken out and most time its to set the record straight when the media has it completely wrong.
Apple is probably the only company that can go out and defend themselves and strongly deny it regardless of what has happened under the pretense of transparency to their shareholders and the SEC.
However, if we understand the situation right, these systems (compromised or not) have been used and deployed to government and defense facilities all over, and probably not only in the US but also with NATO and other allies. NOBODY will come out and comment this except with a broad brush, like was already done a couple days back, because nobody wants to highlight where to look for these systems.
I think it is not without reason that Trump and the US administration have significantly dialed up the rhetoric of Chinese hacking and meddling over the last few weeks. It goes far beyond the trade squeamish. In reality the US and allies are furious at China over how they use electronics produced in the country to intrude into their systems.
Bloomberg has:
- a claim of 100 interviews, not one of which has been made public or the interviewees identified
- 17 individual sources, but only one person actually identified (who has said they handled his information inaccurately)
- Three companies that have issued strong denials, backed up by every intelligence agency in the US and UK, and remember that the companies are making on-the-record denials that would be actionable by the FTC if proven to be lies.
- 1 statement from China (because that's a reliable source ...)
- 0 boards, 0 servers, most of the companies claimed to be attacked unidentified, and the authors still haven't pointed to a single actual compromised machine.
(clarified from Macgui's comment)
Bloomberg is no longer a credible source, particularly when they won't acknowledge their obvious error and retract. Until they do, I suggest AI add the phrase, "the often-unreliable Bloomberg, famous for their false 'hacked server' story" to any report that uses them as a source. This is hardly the first time they've gotten stories about tech companies wrong; it's just by far the biggest and most sinister example.
... and remember that the companies are making on-the-record denials that would be actionable by the FTC if proven to be lies.
And who do you think the FTC will be actionable by when it comes to national security both for the US and allies? The FTC is not going to lift a finger, as is also not the SEC.
If there was a shred of doubt about Cook's denial with the public, mass hysteria would break out with people, companies and government types all over the planet who would start questioning if their iPhones were also compromised given they are produced in China.
Geez, I don't think I've ever heard of a story that has so many huge companies and government agencies publicly be so clear that they know nothing about the story. What's even odder is that Bloomberg doesn't have one verifiable source of evidence, just an endless stream of confidential sources.
I'm sure they conducted a lot of interviews, but it sounds like they used glue and guesswork to construct this crazy story out of half truths and rumors. They must have convinced themselves, though.
Since the NSA revelations, Apple has been taking high resolution images of their server internals. I’m sure if this story were true, Apple would’ve found it along time ago and reported it. I for one believe Tim Cook, it goes against his moral code to lie. A senseless lie would destroy everything he’s worked for, what he stands for.
Since the NSA revelations, Apple has been taking high resolution images of their server internals. I’m sure if this story were true, Apple would’ve found it along time ago and reported it. I for one believe Tim Cook, it goes against his moral code to lie. A senseless lie would destroy everything he’s worked for, what he stands for.
I might get have missed something here, but the last I read, Bloomberg had not given the alleged victims of the spying, such as Apple, the specific details of the mechanism used to allegedly infiltrate the hardware.
I think the onous is on Bloomberg put up the specific evidence. Interviews are in no way evidence; compromised hardware is required.
Who do you choose to believe? I believe in facts and varifiable evidence of facts. This article I like most is the first paragraph that uses “uncharacteristically” to describe Tim Cook. True, if bloomberg has been falsely claimed, Apple should have sent their lawer’s letter, rather than simplistically issue denials.
Who do you choose to believe? I believe in facts and varifiable evidence of facts. This article I like most is the first paragraph that uses “uncharacteristically” to describe Tim Cook. True, if bloomberg has been falsely claimed, Apple should have sent their lawer’s letter, rather than simplistically issue denials.
Nope.
Sending in the lawyers against the press would have no effect except making you look guilty in the minds of the public.
Apple is taking the correct course of action: don't allow Bloomberg to hit and run. Force them to produce the evidence or retract the story.
Geez, I don't think I've ever heard of a story that has so many huge companies and government agencies publicly be so clear that they know nothing about the story. What's even odder is that Bloomberg doesn't have one verifiable source of evidence, just an endless stream of confidential sources.
I'm sure they conducted a lot of interviews, but it sounds like they used glue and guesswork to construct this crazy story out of half truths and rumors. They must have convinced themselves, though.
The telling thing here is that they kept going back to Apple with a different story, which indicates that they were fishing rather than working with anything concrete.
By returning to Apple again and again, they were hoping that they would uncover something because they had nothing to begin with, and they knew it.
Apple is probably the only company that can go out and defend themselves and strongly deny it regardless of what has happened under the pretense of transparency to their shareholders and the SEC.
However, if we understand the situation right, these systems (compromised or not) have been used and deployed to government and defense facilities all over, and probably not only in the US but also with NATO and other allies. NOBODY will come out and comment this except with a broad brush, like was already done a couple days back, because nobody wants to highlight where to look for these systems.
I think it is not without reason that Trump and the US administration have significantly dialed up the rhetoric of Chinese hacking and meddling over the last few weeks. It goes far beyond the trade squeamish. In reality the US and allies are furious at China over how they use electronics produced in the country to intrude into their systems.
It's VERY unlikely that this has any connection to the Trump-China hissy fit thing. Michael Bloomberg strongly opposes Trump. And, the origins of this story pre-date Trump anyway.
Let’s for a moment say that tens of thousands or maybe even hundreds of thousands of servers across the world in governments and the largest companies that handle security, finances, telecommunications and private data of billions of people had been compromised. What do you think the response would be when it came out that a largely (but not totally) respected news organization was going to go public with it. Do you think governments, the NSA, financial institutions, private corporations etc would come out and say “Yeah, we have been hacked, everything has been compromised and there is no quick fix to it but relax it is all going to be okay” or would they deny, deny, deny, give out waivers to companies to deny and then hope that the whole fake news retoric would take over like it has here? If this story were true, it would be catastrophic beyond arguments like they are forced to tell the truth or face a lawsuit for lying to investors and bring down governments, stock markets, large corporations etc.
And while I have no idea if it is true I am not willing to simply dismiss it out of hand like I was when the government said it only had 13 (or whatever the number was that James Clapper testifies to Congress about) FISA warrants to track some phone communications which was true but turned out that each warrant tracked millions and millions of phones.
Comments
incredible!
However, I don’t think this is going to be excused by an ignorant reporter argument.
We must wonder what Bloomberg & Co’s real agenda is.
He governed NYC by often asserting the untrue then purporting to fix things but actually making them much worse. Of course you can imagine the shift in the flow of money.
Be Extra Careful with this!
The lesser of the two evils is to keep their mouth shut if it happen in any way shape or form. Making this kind of public statement has a much higher risk for bad things happen to Tim and Apple. CEO's of company tend to go to the lower risk side of a controversy. Also Apple has long track record of keeping their mouth shut on most everything. Only few times have spoken out and most time its to set the record straight when the media has it completely wrong.
However, if we understand the situation right, these systems (compromised or not) have been used and deployed to government and defense facilities all over, and probably not only in the US but also with NATO and other allies. NOBODY will come out and comment this except with a broad brush, like was already done a couple days back, because nobody wants to highlight where to look for these systems.
I think it is not without reason that Trump and the US administration have significantly dialed up the rhetoric of Chinese hacking and meddling over the last few weeks. It goes far beyond the trade squeamish.
In reality the US and allies are furious at China over how they use electronics produced in the country to intrude into their systems.
- a claim of 100 interviews, not one of which has been made public or the interviewees identified
- 17 individual sources, but only one person actually identified (who has said they handled his information inaccurately)
- Three companies that have issued strong denials, backed up by every intelligence agency in the US and UK, and remember that the companies are making on-the-record denials that would be actionable by the FTC if proven to be lies.
- 1 statement from China (because that's a reliable source ...)
- 0 boards, 0 servers, most of the companies claimed to be attacked unidentified, and the authors still haven't pointed to a single actual compromised machine.
(clarified from Macgui's comment)
Bloomberg is no longer a credible source, particularly when they won't acknowledge their obvious error and retract. Until they do, I suggest AI add the phrase, "the often-unreliable Bloomberg, famous for their false 'hacked server' story" to any report that uses them as a source. This is hardly the first time they've gotten stories about tech companies wrong; it's just by far the biggest and most sinister example.
If there was a shred of doubt about Cook's denial with the public, mass hysteria would break out with people, companies and government types all over the planet who would start questioning if their iPhones were also compromised given they are produced in China.
Unfortunately, Cook doesn't seem to be in a forgiving mood.
I'm sure they conducted a lot of interviews, but it sounds like they used glue and guesswork to construct this crazy story out of half truths and rumors. They must have convinced themselves, though.
I for one believe Tim Cook, it goes against his moral code to lie. A senseless lie would destroy everything he’s worked for, what he stands for.
I think the onous is on Bloomberg put up the specific evidence. Interviews are in no way evidence; compromised hardware is required.
Sending in the lawyers against the press would have no effect except making you look guilty in the minds of the public.
Apple is taking the correct course of action: don't allow Bloomberg to hit and run. Force them to produce the evidence or retract the story.
The telling thing here is that they kept going back to Apple with a different story, which indicates that they were fishing rather than working with anything concrete.
By returning to Apple again and again, they were hoping that they would uncover something because they had nothing to begin with, and they knew it.
And while I have no idea if it is true I am not willing to simply dismiss it out of hand like I was when the government said it only had 13 (or whatever the number was that James Clapper testifies to Congress about) FISA warrants to track some phone communications which was true but turned out that each warrant tracked millions and millions of phones.