Concerns, Ink Mount in Intel Privacy Battle
Jan 25 1999
At the RSA Data Security Conference last Wednesday, Intel announced that, beginning with the Pentium III, it would put processor-specific IDs on each chip it manufactures - chip fingerprints in essence.
The chip giant suggested the IDs were part of a new feature set that will allow information about each specific chip to be used by various software products, to be given or denied access to that computer over the Net. The feature's being pitched as a security measure, and one that can be switched off by users. Sounds like a nifty potential feature, but since the Wednesday announcement there's been a steady snowballing of opposition among privacy advocates concerned that the ID mechanism can be used to collect data about Web surfers. And with the concern has come a steady stream of stories in the press, culminating with this morning's round of packages looking at the players and issues involved.
The news peg this morning is a proposed boycott to be announced today by Junkbusters, a N.J.-based organization, and the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. The story actually broke Sunday, thanks to the AP's Ted Bridis, and even Wired News, which led its package with the story, lifted quotes from the AP piece. The Wall Street Journal and MSNBC this morning just ran the AP story.
Several news outlets prepared more enterprising takes on the issue. ZDNet's Robert Lemos, in a piece published late Friday, suggested that Intel rivals like AMD may begin adding the security measure. National Semiconductor already has plans to do the same.
Friday evening, News.com erected it's inevitable package of stories - essentially a single feature story broken into many artificial pages and including a sidebar piece on congressional concern about the chip ID.
But is the furor much ado about nothing? Cryptographer Bruce Schneier, author of Applied Cryptography and president of security firm Counterpane Systems, told ZDNet, "As a security feature, it is not very interesting and not very useful, because it is so easy to bypass." The principal security benefit seems to be keeping hot chips off the market since the ID serves like a car's Vehicle Identification Number.
Boycott Targets Intel
Wired News
Privacy Groups to Announce a Boycott of Intel Products
Wall Street Journal
Congressman: Intel Chip a Privacy Hazard
News.com
Intel's Embedded-Security Plan Draws Fire
News.com
Other Firms Evaluating Processor IDs
ZDNet