No idea how this one works, but the idea itself is rather plausible. Firmwares in all sorts of consumer hardware are often quite lousy and weren't, until recen

No idea how this one works, but the idea itself is rather plausible. Firmwares in all sorts of consumer hardware are often quite lousy and weren't, until recently, even considered as vectors for exploits (and therefore seriously secured). I've heard of viruses that hide in the USB disk/thumbdrive firmwares, for example - the protocols to update them are sometimes open and unrestricted, and other times not hard to figure out. So it's not a particularly far-fetched idea that there would be vulnerabilities in some of the NICs, that allow remote exploits. That no one talks about it is not really saying anything - remember the heartbleed bug, for example.