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Intel to Develop Hardware Rootkit Detection

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the safety-first dept.

Jack writes "ITO is running a story on Intel's latest initiative - a hardware rootkit detector: 'Intel is trying to eliminate the human factor when dealing with root-kits detection by developing a new hardware-based technique to discover and notify users when they are downloading unintentionally a root-kit to their computer.'"

2 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Warning, Will Robinson by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Warning

    The application you are attempting to execute is extremely suspicious and should be discarded immediately as it has been found to contain x86-64 (AMD64) instructions.

    Seriously, why don't they work with Microsoft to do some kind of checksum and bonk the load when it fails? This 'small chip' smells like something which would persistently degrade memory performance. Why would that be more acceptable than an operating system or BIOS which would block root-kits, i.e. you can only touch this file, this partition, etc, as logged in as root. Oh, right, on Windows processes may run under root authority and be co-opted.

    Gee, seems like it's been 20 years since DEC fixed those bugs in RSTS/E

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. How to market restrictive TCPA technology to users by Josh+Triplett · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is simply a marketing tactic to attempt to gain acceptance for a technology designed to get humans out of the loop whether they like it or not. There is no useful purpose for a technology designed to "protect" a machine from its owner. This marketing tactic simply tries to propose the "but what if we're trying to protect the owner from their own stupidity" angle; however, that kind of thing could be done in software as well.