[smsm42]

How would you show them if a) they are rare b) all known instances are in the hands of DoD/FBI c) DoD/FBI are not interested at all in publishing any information about it. Are you sure it's as simple as

> it was mass produced

I don't think Bloomberg claimed it (compromised MBs) were mass-produced to the tune that every random ebay board contained it. In the parallel case of NSA, compromised hardware was pretty rare and created on case-by-case basis. It could be produced based on shipment batch, knowing (e.g. by hacking a shipping system database) the specific batch goes to a specific sensitive client.

> otherwise could this be a market manipulation attempt?

Pretty elaborate attempt, especially given such thing as appearance of massive shorts on SMC stocks immediately preceding the publication would be very visible (and prosecutable). I'm sure one can insider-trade easier than spending 3 years on massive research involving interviews with dozens of people.