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You can check the BIOS to see if there is an option to disable it.
by pkaye 9y ago
You can check the BIOS to see if there is an option to disable it.
- danesparza 9y agoGood luck with that: http://www.zdnet.com/article/minix-intels-hidden-in-chip-operating-system/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/minix-intels-hidden-in-chip-ope...
- pkaye 9y agoThat is a different issue. The article was about an external USB device. Also I don't understand the concern with people not trusting Intel. By using their hardware in any form you are inherently trusting them. Unless you are able to check their design and fabrication process, they could easily hide something in there to disable protections in Windows or Linux based on certain patterns of network traffic.
- khedoros1 9y agoSay that we trust Intel completely. Does that somehow make AMT not a security concern? For the ME itself, especially if it's not connected to any networking hardware: Whatever. It seems more like a theoretical threat than a practical problem. AMT sounds like something that I don't want running on my machine, even if I trust Intel itself completely.
- simion314 9y agoI think a CPU that has no mini PC inside it is much easy to verify, you can try a lot of inputs and see if the output gets weird, I think this technique was used to discover some hidden switches in Intel that the government uses to work around the ME on their own systems.
- pkaye 9y agoOkay lets say that the ethernet MAC has some gates that detect a particular 1024-bit random bit pattern in packets and that triggers a behavior change in certain sequence of instructions common in Windows security code to bypass it. How would you discover this?
- amigoingtodie 9y agohttps://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/Intel+Network+Card+82574L+Packet+of+Death/15109/ https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/Intel+Network+Card+82574L+...
- simion314 9y agoWhat do you mean the ethernet card triggers changes in Windows instructions? Do you mean it can scan the RAM and do some changes? I am not familiar with how recent hardware works but I would be worried if hardware could scan RAM and edit executable code bypassing the kernel and drivers, so more reasons to get open hardware and drivers.
- throw2016 9y agoPerhaps others are not so trusting and do not want to legitimize surveillance and would like to hold these companies to account. Privacy is not just some option, it is law. Surveillance and hidden surveillance of users is illegal in most countries and any technology with the capability to do so has to be disclosed with end user control.
- pkaye 9y agoSure but most don't seem to value their privacy enough that they continue using Intel products. As such nothing will change.
- pdkl95 9y agoPlease stop blaming the victim for being ignorant and/or falling prey to marketing. > most don't seem to value their privacy Most people do value their privacy, but are either ignorant of how strongly technology can damage their privacy[1] or fee there isn't any other option or alternative. > nothing will change It will change when the people that do understand technology work to preserve privacy over profit and convenience, educate the general public about privacy issues, and inform them of privacy respecting alternatives. [1] Businesses tend to encourage ignorant and/or misleading beliefs when they promise impressive features backed u[p with useless promises to "take security seriously".
- JumpCrisscross 9y agoI don’t think “don’t blame the victim” applies to voluntary transactions. Consumers have shown we will not sacrifice much for privacy or security. That’s a trade-off made in the market by millions of people, independently, every day.
- jgalt212 9y agoThe average user should not need to muck around with the BIOS.
- bearbearbear 9y agoI'm a Mac user and what is BIOS /s
- sctb 9y agoWe've asked you already to post substantively or not at all, and we ban accounts that won't. Would you please take a look at the guidelines and try to change this? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- briandear 9y agoThe average user has an almost zero risk of having to worry about being bugged via their USB. Is your Aunt Irma a target for espionage?
- Teever 9y agoI guess the answer to that question depends on if you or someone else that irma is associated with is the target of espionage
- seanp2k2 9y agoNothing to hide, what’s the problem?
- Jach 9y agoIt's not nothing to hide, it's realistic threat model. But if these things become more popular and in more and more devices they'll just hoover up all the data they can get like already happens with web software. The average user probably should not have to learn what an extension is and figure out which adblocker to install, but this is the inelegant world we live in, and anyway I'm still on the fence for whether I really want to expect more from the average user or not.