Bloomberg is doing more investigation into its controversial hardware hack story. Bloomberg‘s Ben Elgin has been asking companies for further comments (via The Washington Post).
[Key Takeaways from Apple’s Lengthy Rebuttal of Bloomberg’s ‘Chinese Spy Chip’ Story]
The Big Hack
In early October Bloomberg published a story that accused China of hacking into servers used by a number of U.S. tech companies. Government officials and the companies quickly denied the story, but Bloomberg hasn’t retracted the story.
The Washington Post has found that a Bloomberg reporter has been making a fresh round of inquiries into the matter. Mr. Elgin wasn’t part of the original investigation, but he’s trying to get to what he calls “ground truth” with his own sources.
The recent round of sleuthing by Elgin appears to be good journalism; there’s nothing untoward and everything legitimate about finding sources, asking them for interviews and pursuing the truth. This particular round of truth-seeking, of course, would have been better timed to precede a decision on publication of “The Big Hack.”
The biggest shortcoming of the investigation was the lack of evidence. No documents, reports, or photos of the Chinese spy chip. There was an artist rendering, but that was it. I’m sure everyone involved would love to get to the bottom of what happened. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for more information.
[Here’s Why Bloomberg’s Spy Chip Report is Wrong]
In other words…”When did you stop beating your wife.”