Yeah I don't think those are really related. Apple was exceptionally clear that this simply didn't happen. Verizon is very careful about how they word that to say they didn't turn them over to the NSA, while omitting all of the other three letter agencies (DIA, FBI, DOJ, etc).
Compare that with Apple's statement, which is forcefully blunt and has no wiggle room:
On this we can be very clear: 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 fact that they then asked Bloomberg to retract the story is also going a step further. The next step would be a libel lawsuit against Bloomberg, but that would be the thermonuclear option.
All of that said, the BMC on supermicro boxes is running a super old unpatched Linux and is absolutely chock full of exploits:
The next step would be a libel lawsuit against Bloomberg
I'm waiting for the libel lawsuit. The absence of one is something I can't reconcile and leads me to thinking perhaps Apple doesn't want to through the discovery process for such a lawsuit which leads me to wonder why they wouldn't...
There aren't really any upsides for a libel lawsuit from Apple tbh, but I guess it just depends on how much Cook wants that retracted. As spiteful as he was, I'd suspect Jobs would have aggressively taken this approach.
Compare that with Apple's statement, which is forcefully blunt and has no wiggle room:
The fact that they then asked Bloomberg to retract the story is also going a step further. The next step would be a libel lawsuit against Bloomberg, but that would be the thermonuclear option.All of that said, the BMC on supermicro boxes is running a super old unpatched Linux and is absolutely chock full of exploits:
https://www.cvedetails.com/google-search-results.php?q=super...
I had to root one several years ago to fix a broken server we couldn't take out of service for $reasons.