Privacy is Becoming a Crime – Why Intel Chips May Present a Whole New Risk
Intel Core vPro processors are being marketed as a great advancement in security to protect your identity and files. Then they include something really new that they are calling REMOTE REPAIR. This allows remote parties to access your entire computer and turn it on when it is turned off. They can configure, diagnose, isolate, and repair an infected PC even if it’s unresponsive all with remote support and monitoring capabilities embedded into select Intel® vPro™ processors.5.
What this means is hackers will be able to gain access to your computer if not the NSA. Intel is marketing this claiming managed service providers will be able to “discover, repair, and protect their networked computing assets. Intel AMT enables IT or managed service providers to manage and repair not only their PC assets, but workstations and entry servers as well, utilizing the same infrastructure and tools across platforms for management consistency. For embedded developers, this means that devices can be diagnosed and repaired remotely, ultimately lowering IT support costs. Intel AMT is a feature of Intel® Core™ processors with Intel® vPro™ technology1.2 and workstation platforms based on select Intel® Xeon® processors.”
The new Intel Core vPro processors contain a new remote access feature which allows 100% remote access to a PC 100% of the time, even if the computer is turned off. Core vPro processors contain a second physical processor embedded within the main processor which has its own operating system embedded on the chip itself. As long as the power supply is available and in working condition, it can be woken up by the Core vPro processor, which runs on the system’s phantom power and is able to quietly turn individual hardware components on and access anything on them.
Let’s make this perfectly clear. This eliminates ALL possible privacy. It will allow IT professionals to view the contents of hard drives, check the memory, or hunt for problems on a machine without actually being in front of it. Nothing in your computer will ever be private again. Someone will be able to even install software unknown to the owner.
Clearly, if this was not inspired by the NSA, they must be jumping up and down with glee. This means that anyone in the world using a computer with an Intel Chip will be vulnerable. If you go on vacation, and even turn off your computer, they will have a free access.
Between Microsoft and its Windows 8 and Intel with its Core vPro processors, it looks like it is time for competition to take that crown from the USA and restore privacy. Obviously, American companies grant every possible wish the NSA ever had. Merkel – looks like you better use pigeon post and throw away your phone and computers.
India – All That Glitters is Not Gold
Over the past year and a half India’s finance minister, P. Chidambaram, has been fighting his country’s insatiable appetite for gold. on the theory that gold imports are creating a current account deficit and weakening the rupee. Consequently, Gold import duties have risen tenfold – from 1% at the start of 2012 to 10% today. The Excise Duties now stand at 9% while new rules such as strictly cash only for imports and transaction taxes among other punitive measures have shut down India’s gold industry.
Some of the anti-bullion measures are now being lifted and the $300 million Reliance Gold Savings Fund, India’s third largest gold-backed investment fund, will now accept fresh investments again after a 12-week hiatus citing a stronger rupee. The fund had suspended sales at the beginning of August.
Yet behind the veil in India there has been another twist to gold. One way around banking laws has been to create an account that automatically deducts funds from your payroll and that goes toward buying gold. However, at the end of the year, you can elect to sell the gold and withdraw the cash. Such schemes have led some to presume the demand for gold is actually higher than it actually is. Nonetheless, Indian demand for gold in jewelry is a cultural issue that sumptuary laws will not alter.
In the USA before 1975 when gold was illegal to own, the loophole was coins. Why were coins exempt? Because Teddy Roosevelt was an ancient coin collector. Franklin knew that ran in his family and thus excluded coins from the act. The famous 1907 $20 High Relief gold coin was created because Teddy wanted American coins to be a beautiful high relief as made by the Greeks. The modern machines could not cope with that quality and the coin was replaced with the more typical low relief. But thanks to Teddy Roosevelt, people could still buy and hold $20 gold coins in the USA even when gold bullion was illegal to trade or buy. Sometimes you just have to dig a little deeper to get to the full story.