This one is a spine-chilling story of how the Chinese spies reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain by inserting a tiny microchip not much bigger than a grain of rice. China’s goal, according to the sources and insiders, is to have long-term access to high-value corporate secrets and sensitive government networks. 

Since the products of those major companies are sold across the globe, the advantages are enormous for a worldwide secret data gathering for the Chinese state. If the claims are true, which this story claims they are.

It all began with Amazon.com Inc. began evaluating a startup called Elemental Technologies to help with a major expansion of its streaming video service, Amazon Prime Video. Elemental produced software for compressing massive video files and formatting them for different devices. But their activity fitted also well with Amazon’s businesses with the U.S. government, such as the highly secure cloud that Amazon Web Services (AWS) was building for the CIA.

To double-check Elemental for sensitive issues, Amazon recruited a third-party company to scrutinize Elemental’s security, and it soon was discovered that the there were some suspicious, tiny chips on the motherboards that were not part of their original design. 

Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. 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 ... During the ensuing top-secret probe, which remains open more than three years later, investigators determined that the chips allowed the attackers to create a stealth doorway into any network that included the altered machines. Multiple people familiar with the matter say investigators found that the chips had been inserted at factories run by manufacturing subcontractors in China.

So, here begins the story ...