> It's possible the chips could be modified before manufacture, or after, to contain a flaw.
Wouldn't Apple be able to detect such an attack, if they were looking (e.g. decap sample chips, image at high magnification, and compare to the original design files)?
I don't think such an attack would work very well as a tailored access sort of thing. If the backdoored chips got into the supply chain, the general public would be affected. If the NSA wanted to only target certain people, they'd have to have a huge amount of control over Apple's supply chain, which would surely be noticed.
Wouldn't Apple be able to detect such an attack, if they were looking (e.g. decap sample chips, image at high magnification, and compare to the original design files)?
I don't think such an attack would work very well as a tailored access sort of thing. If the backdoored chips got into the supply chain, the general public would be affected. If the NSA wanted to only target certain people, they'd have to have a huge amount of control over Apple's supply chain, which would surely be noticed.