UK cyber security agency backs Apple, Amazon China hack denials

Customers walk past an Apple logo inside of an Apple store at Grand Central Station in New York, U.S., August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files

Britain's national cyber security agency said it had no reason to doubt the assessments made by Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc challenging a Bloomberg report that their systems contained malicious computer chips inserted by Chinese intelligence services.

Bloomberg Businessweek on Thursday cited 17 unnamed intelligence and company sources as saying that Chinese spies had placed computer chips inside equipment used by around 30 companies, as well as multiple US government agencies, which would give Beijing secret access to internal networks.