Existence of this problem is often used as a defeatist argument to do nothing about software security. 1. I don't want to run any software I don't trust, and I

Existence of this problem is often used as a defeatist argument to do nothing about software security. 1. I don't want to run any software I don't trust, and I don't want to trust anyone. 2. But it's impossible to verify anything, because even my CPU could be lying to me. The result is that any improvement in security gets shot down, because nothing short of digging sand for silicon with your bare hands is safe from Ken Thompson.