Yes, for a long time. Criminals have used hardware rootkits since at least 2008, but the most famous one is Intel Active Management Technology. Wikipedia expla

Yes, for a long time. Criminals have used hardware rootkits since at least 2008, but the most famous one is Intel Active Management Technology. Wikipedia explains: > Intel Active Management Technology, part of Intel vPro, implements out-of-band management, giving administrators remote administration, remote management, and remote control of PCs with no involvement of the host processor or BIOS, even when the system is powered off. Remote administration includes remote power-up and power-down, remote reset, redirected boot, console redirection, pre-boot access to BIOS settings, programmable filtering for inbound and outbound network traffic, agent presence checking, out-of-band policy-based alerting, access to system information, such as hardware asset information, persistent event logs, and other information that is stored in dedicated memory (not on the hard drive) where it is accessible even if the OS is down or the PC is powered off. Some of these functions require the deepest level of rootkit, a second non-removable spy computer built around the main computer. Sandy Bridge and future chipsets have "the ability to remotely kill and restore a lost or stolen PC via 3G". Hardware rootkits built into the chipset can help recover stolen computers, remove data, or render them useless, but they also present privacy and security concerns of undetectable spying and redirection by management or hackers who might gain control. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit#Firmware_and_hardware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit#Firmware_and_hardware