This is the problem when you engineer something with reduced security or backdoors, they'll get exposed - eventually.
Great point about the issue being exposed and the possibility that the Intel exploits were engineered (or at least perhaps a "planned and coincidental accident" of efficient chip design). However, I think these exploits also point to how rushed the entire industry was and has been to get to people with personal computing. I don't care what it's called, etc., but that force meant worries for alot of governments. Hardware changing and improving daily...how do you regulate software standards? Not to take their side, but I can can understand to an extent why governments, also responsible for the safe operation and care of armed nuclear missiles and working and functional nuclear power plants and the like, would want to have a handle on what to expect in potentially dangerous scenarios. But it's ugly and can be done in a much better way obviously. The same thing can be accomplished with full net monitoring , complex and intense scenario examination, and people on the ground "reading the streets"...the old school ways are the best ways to do security it seems to me, and the simpler the better. These ways don't require unverified trust on the part of anyone. Maybe think of it this way. Remove consumer based big business from the national security picture, and the challenge becomes magnitudes simpler, plainer, and clearer. It also becomes trustable for the people, because they in one way gain a trusted friend in their company. Also, those who buy products can be more assured that the focus of the companies making the products is not divided.
Thanks for you insights on security matters. I think things will steadily calm down and get better over the next 10 years I guess I would say.
BTW, I am no security insider by any means. Probably this is obvious
. Yes, all of this just seems to be plain. With all the questions surrounding MS and Windows going back to Win 3.1, I guess it's hard for me to imagine that these vulnerabilities weren't "engineered".