Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked the chief executive officer of Super Micro Computer in an Oct. 9 letter whether the company has ever found evidence of tampering of components or firmware that targeted the company’s products, among other questions stemming from a Bloomberg Businessweek article reporting that chips made by a Chinese firm and allegedly used by numerous U.S. companies and government agencies were engineered to enable backdoor data transmissions to China. Super Micro and several companies mentioned in the report–including Apple and Amazon–have strongly denied the report’s claims. Sens. Blumenthal and Rubio noted Super Micro’s denial, but said nonetheless “these new allegations require thorough answers and urgent investigation for customers, law enforcement, and Congress.” The senators asked for a response from the company by Oct. 17.
