[ExI] Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages

[Andrew Mckee]

On Sun, 14 Jul 2013 09:09:22 +1200, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:


> Source?  That smells like something people claim, but things actually don't
> work that way.  TCP/IP parts of most systems are separate from the CPU -
> and are, in fact, part of the OS.

It was an announcement directly by Intel themselves several years or so back.

I happened to remember it because I was using the software in question to manage headless render nodes where I happened to work at the time.

Handy to have client software pre-installed at the factory for those managing a room full of servers, but It seemed to raise the eyebrows of some I knew, since the whole Clipper chip - US government back door spying proposal was still fresh in peoples minds.

Having witnessed  the mouse pointer come alive on a laptop sitting on a table with nobody near it, open windows and start rifling through the contents on its harddrive until it's horrified owner ripped the 3G modem out of its USB slot, makes me think that on chip backdoors are alive and well.

Well that, and the recent televised testimony of an anti- nuke campaigner claiming amongst other things, less than subtle mail opening, stolen flash drives, and their PC mysteriously turning itself on in the middle of the night.

If you want private communications I'd suggest using invisible ink and a carrier pigeon.  :-)