Only the people inserting the backdoor or using it would need to be bound by a National Security Letter's gag order. I doubt anyone at Google (including those s

Only the people inserting the backdoor or using it would need to be bound by a National Security Letter's gag order. I doubt anyone at Google (including those subject to NSL gag orders) was made aware of this specific vulnerability. # Google’s commitment to collaboration and hardware security ## As Reptar, Zenbleed, and Downfall suggest, computing hardware and processors remain susceptible to these types of vulnerabilities. This trend will only continue as hardware becomes increasingly complex. This is why Google continues to invest heavily in CPU and vulnerability research. Work like this, done in close collaboration with our industry partners, allows us to keep users safe and is critical to finding and mitigating vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. There's a tension between the NSA wanting backdoors and service providers (CPU designers + Cloud hosting) wanting secure platforms. It's possible that by employing CPU and security researchers, Google can tip the scales a bit further in their favor.