hardware

The electronic components, boards, peripherals, and computer equipment that make up a computer system (as opposed to the software, which tells these components what to do).

Historical perspective: China could be stealing corporate and government secrets with a tiny microchip not much bigger than a grain of rice, according to Bloomberg Businessweek in 2018. U.S. officials say that "spy chips" have been found on motherboards sold by a U.S. company called Super Micro, and these "hardware hacks" were likely placed there in Chinese factories. While Super Micro may not be a household name, its compromised servers—computers that manage networks of computers—sit at the heart of the internet. They are used by major U.S. cloud computing firms, including Apple and Amazon, as well as by the Pentagon and CIA.