https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-09/new-evide...
I'm not saying it is true, but of course all parties involved will deny everything, imagine how much it would hurt them if they acknowledged they have been hacked.
> Appleboum said one key sign of the implant is that the manipulated Ethernet connector has metal sides instead of the usual plastic ones. The metal is necessary to diffuse heat from the chip hidden inside, which acts like a mini computer.
Every RJ45 jack ("Ethernet connector") I've seen used in modern networking hardware has a metal case for EMI shielding. This isn't an indicator of compromise. Nor does this make sense as a location for an implant -- the RJ45 jack isn't in a privileged position to access information on the server, nor would a device located inside the jack be able to easily interact with the network without interfering with the real Ethernet controller.
Where would one acquire these metal RJ45 jacks? The ones I have are all plastic (usually clear), with the exception of the small (copper?) metal wires that transmit the signals. I am in fact looking at one right now on my desk and it's definitely not metal shielded.
I have never seen a plastic ethernet jacket on a server motherboard or server NIC.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/amphenol-commercia...
We don't even have to imagine much beyond the current pain its caused Supermicro. According to that article, the stock dropped 41% last Thursday from the original article and then another 15% today (the article says 27% today, but they made some gains since the article was published).
Journalists are the only ones that care about what the public knows.