Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) has quite forcefully denied the (via Reuters, reportedly written by George Stathakopoulos - Apple’s Vice President for Information Security) existence of surreptitious-command-and-control-chip-insertions on system boards within devices manufactured by Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI) under contract with and deployed/implemented by Apple Inc. within the latter's data centers. Interestingly, there is some evidence of security-related issues two years ago betwixt Apple, Inc. and Super Micro Computer Inc.... And then there's The Grugq, whose typically clear and exacting opinions are trusted hereabouts - his view appears here (you'd do well to listen to his take). Regardless of what path you walk in discerning the truth of this particularly murky debacle, one thing is clear - human nature given what it is, there is certainly an abundance of vile perniciousness floating about this scenario that has yet to be revealed.

Update: Axios has announced it has dropped the letter referred to in this post to Sribd, here.