if intel can manage your machine state remotely [they can with ME] then someone else can as well.
corporate customers often have an elevated relationship that retail consumers dont have. There is a different level of trust. I dont trust Intel. I didnt ask for ME and i treat any hardware with ME as an edge device.
as far as impact is concerned its possible that clone machines could be manufactured with hardware modifications.
how possible depends on how much money someone has to throw at the project.
exploit chips could become a common offering all you need is a steady hand and a solder iron, and a blob of epoxy for good measure if you want to hide the job.
if as a highminded attacker you determine the hardware key, as it stands you can then decode a software key and begin manipulating firmware. The concern being that the same hardware key is used accross all ME chipsets.
corporate customers often have an elevated relationship that retail consumers dont have. There is a different level of trust. I dont trust Intel. I didnt ask for ME and i treat any hardware with ME as an edge device.
as far as impact is concerned its possible that clone machines could be manufactured with hardware modifications. how possible depends on how much money someone has to throw at the project.
exploit chips could become a common offering all you need is a steady hand and a solder iron, and a blob of epoxy for good measure if you want to hide the job.
if as a highminded attacker you determine the hardware key, as it stands you can then decode a software key and begin manipulating firmware. The concern being that the same hardware key is used accross all ME chipsets.