Hacker posts confidential Intel specs online

Intel suffered a massive breach on Thursday as 20 GB of internal documents were published online.

The confidential documents contain data on the internal designs of chipsets from 2016.

The data was sent by an anonymous source to a Swiss software engineer, To Kottmann, which specializes in uploading hacked documents. He does so, he said, to encourage companies to exercise more caution regarding safety and “better identify and assess potential problems.” But he acknowledges that he is also motivated to release unauthorized documents obtained from hackers “to release information” for all to see.

The data was also posted on an online file sharing website.

The data dump contains sensitive files obtained from the Intel Resource and Design Center, which provides information for customers and business partners. The documents can only be accessed after users have not signed any disclosure agreements.

It is not clear whether the anonymous source hacked their system or had internal access to it.

“We are investigating this situation,” Intel said in a statement Thursday. “We believe an individual with access can download and share this data.”

For Intel, already going through a rough period, as its market value fell by more than $ 40 billion after recent reports of yet another commitment in the production plan for its 7nm chips and an internal reorganization that is the oyster of its chief engineer officer saw, the burglary may just be the tip of the iceberg.

According to Kottmann, this week’s release is only the first part of a series of data dumps coming in the very near future.

Topics of the confidential documents include such titles as “Binaries for Canera Drivers Intel Made for SPaceX,” “Schemes, Docs, Tools and Firmware for the Unreleased Tiger Lake Platform,” “Simics Simulation for Rocket Lake S and Potentially Other Platforms “and” Bootguard SDK. “

The leak also includes technical specs and PDF presentations about Intel’s upcoming Tiger Chip, slated for distribution early next month.

Some observers were amused that between passwords Intel uses on internal documents in data breach, the surprisingly weak “Intel123” and “I accept.”

An Intel spokeswoman said it did not disclose and customer or personal information was compromised. However, sections of BIOS code revealed in the dump cold could potentially be used by hackers to reverse engineer a hack that could affect current or future Intel products.

Based on his communication with the hacker, Kottmann predicted that the current leak is just one “in a series of major Intel leaks.”

“Future parts of this leak,” Kottmann tweeted, “will have even sweeter and more classified things.”

Also troubling was the anonymous hacker’s claim, made in an interview with Kottmann, that he could personalize Intel employees.

“Due to an incorrect configuration,” the hacker said, “I was able to disguise myself as one of them [Intel’s] employees or create my own username.

This latest breach is reminiscent of a 2017 episode in which confidential source code for Microsoft Windows 10, intended for “qualified customers, businesses, governments, and partners for debugging and referral purposes,” was leaked online.

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