Intel, one of the largest semiconductor chip manufacturers in the world, has a disturbing history when you look at the company and exactly what’s going on with the hardware it produces.
For starters, Intel is basically an Israeli company, despite its headquarters in California. In 2017, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich admitted the company’s Kosher ties when giving a speech in Israel to commemorate a $15 billion acquisition:
Intel’s $15 billion plans to acquire Jerusalem’s Mobileye not only demonstrate the company’s belief in Israeli innovation, but also position the country to become the global leader in autonomous driving, according to the chip giant’s CEO, Brian Krzanich.
“We think of ourselves as an Israeli company as much as a US company,” Krzanich said at a Jerusalem press conference on Tuesday evening at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Just last month, in January 2019, Intel announced further plans to expand business operations in Israel:
Intel Prepares a Mammoth $11 Billion Investment in Israel
With a combination of tax-sops and State support, Intel loosened its purse-strings for a massive investment in Israel, where the company already has substantial investments in manufacturing and R&D. The investment consists of a 40 billion Shekel (~USD $11 billion) semiconductor foundry. “Intel’s global management has informed us about its decision to invest another 40 billion shekels in Israel, an unprecedented decision that is expected to bring thousands of jobs to the south (of Israel),” said the country’s Minister of Finance, Moshe Kahlon.
This $11 billion investment closely follows news of Intel committing $5 billion last year toward expanding its existing facility in Kiryat Gat. Expansion of this plant in the southern part of the country, is expected to complete by 2020. As part of that agreement, Intel will spend $3 billion on sourcing materials, labor, and services from local Israeli businesses. The new factory is slated to come up in the same city, although it’s not known if the site is contiguous with the existing factory. Intel is one of the largest multinational employers in Israel.
Now let’s get to the heart of the matter. Does Intel (and those who control it) have backdoor access to every device with a modern Intel processor? The answer appears to be a definitive yes:
Intel Management Engine (ME)
Introduced in June 2006 in Intel’s 965 Express Chipset Family of (Graphics and) Memory Controller Hubs, or (G)MCHs, and the ICH8 I/O Controller Family, the Intel Management Engine (ME) is a separate computing environment physically located in the (G)MCH chip. In Q3 2009, the first generation of Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (Nehalem) CPUs and the 5 Series Chipset family of Platform Controller Hubs, or PCHs, brought a more tightly integrated ME (now at version 6.0) inside the PCH chip, which itself replaced the ICH. Thus, the ME is present on all Intel desktop, mobile (laptop), and server systems since mid 2006.
The ME consists of an ARC processor core (replaced with other processor cores in later generations of the ME), code and data caches, a timer, and a secure internal bus to which additional devices are connected, including a cryptography engine, internal ROM and RAM, memory controllers, and a direct memory access (DMA) engine to access the host operating system’s memory as well as to reserve a region of protected external memory to supplement the ME’s limited internal RAM. The ME also has network access with its own MAC address through an Intel Gigabit Ethernet Controller. Its boot program, stored on the internal ROM, loads a firmware “manifest” from the PC’s SPI flash chip. This manifest is signed with a strong cryptographic key, which differs between versions of the ME firmware. If the manifest isn’t signed by a specific Intel key, the boot ROM won’t load and execute the firmware and the ME processor core will be halted.
…The Intel Management Engine with its proprietary firmware has complete access to and control over the PC: it can power on or shut down the PC, read all open files, examine all running applications, track all keys pressed and mouse movements, and even capture or display images on the screen. And it has a network interface that is demonstrably insecure, which can allow an attacker on the network to inject rootkits that completely compromise the PC and can report to the attacker all activities performed on the PC. It is a threat to freedom, security, and privacy that can’t be ignored.
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Due to the signature verification, developing free replacement firmware for the ME is basically impossible. The only entity capable of replacing the ME firmware is Intel. As previously stated, the ME firmware includes proprietary code licensed from third parties, so Intel couldn’t release the source code even if they wanted to. And even if they developed completely new ME firmware without third-party proprietary code and released its source code, the ME’s boot ROM would reject any modified firmware that isn’t signed by Intel. Thus, the ME firmware is both hopelessly proprietary and “tivoized”.
In summary, the Intel Management Engine and its applications are a backdoor with total access to and control over the rest of the PC. The ME is a threat to freedom, security, and privacy, and the libreboot project strongly recommends avoiding it entirely. Since recent versions of it can’t be removed, this means avoiding all recent generations of Intel hardware.
Jews have a long history of spying on the goyim. Surveillance has been a tool to monitor and “deal with” those who do not go along with the marxist agenda, as is evident from the Soviet and East German (Stasi) regimes. And of course, there will always be excuses for more surveillance throughout the world, whether it be “terrorism”, “hate speech”, or copyright infringement.
And let’s not forget that Israeli intelligence already has a direct conduit to spy on people through the NSA. As revealed in 2013, the NSA shares raw intelligence with our “greatest ally” Israel, but American bureaucrats will assure us that nothing is amiss.
The basic problem here is that most of our technology has some form of “backdoor” or access point. With Intel, that backdoor goes to Israel. With Chinese hardware, that backdoor goes to Beijing. Either way, it’s becoming extremely difficult to use technology that has not been fundamentally compromised at some level.
Perhaps the Amish had it right all along.
African Bioluminescence
There are some issues with these claims about the Intel Management Engine, specifically in the infographic at the bottom. It’s pretty dated now as well.
– Apple/iOS devices are not affected by this since they do not use Intel CPUs
– The ME is no longer based on ARC and is instead now x86 on modern CPUs
– The ME can still be disabled post-boot on most systems by setting a certain bit (requires flashing a chip, see me_cleaner)
– The ME is not based on Linux. It uses a stripped down version of MINIX and its original author is not happy about what Intel did with his creation.
– There are many alternatives to x86 that support desktop Linux and other OSes (ARM, RISC-V, PowerPC, SPARC, etc.)
– The Israel/Russia claim makes no sense as the countries are not on the best of terms. They’d never collaborate in such a way.
– The national security claim is untrue since the ability to disable the ME only exists because of the NSA. They specifically requested that Intel add a way to disable it for government systems and they did not count on the public finding out how to do it themselves.
– The “AMD equivalent” (Secure Processor/PSP) isn’t really an equivalent at all. It’s true that it’s also a co-processor but security researchers have not found it to have anywhere near the level of access to system wide resources that the Intel Management Engine has.
While I don’t believe it is widely used I do believe that it’s a backdoor. Intel’s reaction to people discovering that it can be disabled tells me everything I need to know. There are however plenty of efforts being made to fix the issue so hopefully things don’t look so bleak in the future.
Harry Vox
Excellent work as always
Harry Vox
guest
As an added bonus, INTEL is big on diversity:
https://blogs.intel.com/jobs/2018/01/intels-diversity-scholar-programs/#gs.rrsUozyF
http://fortune.com/2015/01/12/intel-diversity/
Ottify
“Perhaps the Amish had it right all along.”
I live among the Amish. I have a tremendous amount of respect for them. They definitely have more right than wrong with their way of life. I fully believe there is a reason my family lives where we do during these precarious times…
As for this snooping tech – we should all have the full expectation that when we subscribe to these gadgets, that we have compromised any privacy involving them. Any good Christian should have no fears, as we should not be doing or saying anything that isn’t glorifying our Father anyway, that we fear should come to light. My biggest issue with this tech is it’s affect on our health. I pray He protects me as I use it to further his Word, but that doesn’t mean that our people as a whole go unaffected…
Christopher Cerullo
Yes, I totally agree with your own personal Views, the ( Amish ) Community, avoids any danger, from ( NWO ) Technology, such as ( 5G ) & etc. Furthermore , the Amish Communities have ( No ) cases of, Autism, due to the fact, they do ( Not ) take any Vaccines.
People can learn a lot, if their open-minded, use common sense & use Wisdom & Knowledge.
The World has been falling apart & World War 3 is just around the corner, than the Ends of Times, is not too far after that…………….Amen………!