Chinese cyber professionals say Intel is installing CPU backdoors on behalf of the NSA
Following China’s accusations that Volt Typhoon is actually an asset of the CIA, a group of cybersecurity experts from the Cyber Security Association of China (CSAC) have now claimed that Intel products sold in China have “frequent vulnerabilities and high failure rates”.
CSAC also said Intel products pose “serious national security risks,” claiming that U.S. semiconductor makers have installed an NSA backdoor in “nearly all” central processing units (CPU) since 2008 to prevent a “next -generation security system’.
“This poses a tremendous threat to the security of the critical information infrastructure of countries around the world, including China,” CSAC said as part of its accusations against the US. the organization’s WeChat account.
Press to open an investigation
The US and China have regularly leveled similar accusations at each other, with US lawmakers recently pushing for greater restrictions on suppliers passing US advanced chip manufacturing equipment to Huawei, which the US placed on the Entity List in 2019, restricting companies from trading with the tech company headquartered in Shenzhen.
China is also accused of infiltrating US critical infrastructure to draw up a list of targets to attack in case war breaks out between the two superpowers. British ministers also said this week that Chinese state-sponsored threat actors may already have access to British critical infrastructure.
In a statement on WeChat, Intel’s Chinese unit said: “We will maintain communication with relevant authorities, clarify any concerns and reaffirm our commitment to product safety and quality” (Via Reuters).
CSAC also asked the Cyberspace Administration of China to investigate Intel products sold in China for vulnerabilities and backdoors “to effectively protect China’s national security.”