ME has a debug mode that might be possible to enable with a signal sent through the 3.5mm jack on some laptops[1]. I'd be pretty concerned about ME bugs and backdoors disguised as ME bugs.

1. https://youtu.be/xUJQps2-VWk?t=301

I meant, finding a backdoor in its full form on the main system would be a much more significant find, and its impact and newsworthiness is greater than any hypothetical or baseless speculations, such as Bloomberg's BMC affair.

The impact of the BMC affair, if true, is showing real evidence and real demonstration that such an attack has happened, has been used in the wild, rather than showing that the attack is possible (we all know). Unfortunately, bad journalism at work.

P.S: I'm not saying that the ME subsystem, or buggy speculation (pun not intended) isn't a threat, just to make a point.

> I'd be pretty concerned about ME bugs and backdoors disguised as ME bugs.

Same consequences. I'd say they're effectively the same thing.

Zuckerberg’s famous MacBook with tape over web cam and microphone jack has a lot more context now.

I guess this says everything about corporations caring about security.

There's a difference between one guy chasing ghosts, and several sources anonymously saying "we found this and had to mitigate it".

Well, a year later, we still haven't seen the backdoor chip in question being taken to a lab or DEFCON yet... Even the photograph was fake, just a stock photo...

I was excited to read the news story, and it was a huge disappointment.

We also haven't seen the devices in the NSA's TAO catalog taken to a lab or showing up at DEFCON. That's half the point of targeted hardware attacks.

And yeah, it was a graphic that wasn't entirely accurate; welcome to print journalism.