A secret Intel facility in Costa Rica studies old CPUs, here's why
A secret Intel facility in Costa Rica studies old CPUs
Costa Rica is home to one of Intel's many research facilities, although this one is slightly different from the usual ones. Rather than focusing on cutting edge chip development, it manages the long queue of abandoned hardware that Intel has accumulated over the years. The warehouse currently houses approximately 3,000 different hardware and software components that Intel has manufactured over the past decade and has a very specific purpose: security research.For the average consumer, a product's lifecycle ends typically with its replacement with a newer model, while Intel has to think of all consumers not keeping up with the blazingly fast pace of the semiconductor industry. As product support declines, however, older hardware becomes increasingly vulnerable to previously unknown new exploits. Costa Rican facilities help Intel remotely catalog, store, and test outdated hardware as new vulnerabilities are discovered, such as the known Specter and Meltdown.
Photo Credit: Intel The connection between Specter / Meltdown and Intel's Costa Rica facilities are further strengthened by Mohsen Fazlian, general manager of Intel's product assurance and security unit. Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, he stated that Intel "had to actually go to eBay and start looking for these platforms". Apparently, Intel found itself sorely lacking in the Sandy Bridge platform and working CPU units, which isn't strange considering how these systems originally launched in 2011.
That this is the oldest Intel CPU vulnerable to transient execution attacks - and that Intel actually had to resort to eBay for specific pieces - is probably more than just a coincidence. The company plans to have its R&D facilities in Costa Rica also serve as a repository and remote test run in the second half of 2018 (with construction completed in the second half of 2019).
As Intel's product portfolio grows, the facility will require continued expansion, either locally or with further branching into other locations. For example, Intel is already planning to expand the Costa Rica headquarters next year, nearly doubling the space to 2,508m² from the current 1,300. This will bring the amount of outdated hardware and software solutions hosted up to 6,000 units.
Photo Credit: Intel Facility is designed to enable remote diagnostics and security research - operates 24/7 7, 365 days a year, and can count on 25 engineers focused exclusively on this task. Marcel Cortes Beer, a manager of the lab, told the Wall Street Journal that the facility receives approximately 1,000 build requests per month for remote security testing and 50 new devices arrive weekly. Additionally, Intel engineers at other locations can remotely request that a specific hardware configuration be assembled and made available for remote testing via a cloud-based connection.
“I can create an exact replica of the researcher's system that submitted the application. Same CPU, same OS version, microcode, BIOS, ”said Anders Fogh, a German senior principal engineer. "All this increases the possibility of reproducing the problem, which is often the best starting point." He added that “the facility's huge machine library is truly the ideal place to do this kind of work.”
The facilities' unknown physical location in Costa Rica demonstrates how seriously Intel is taking testing deprecated hardware. Anyone who has access to the facility is strictly controlled; requests must be approved by senior managers and surveillance cameras check the equipment (and technicians) at all times.
Cyber Daily: Inside Intel’s Secret Warehouse in Costa Rica
Good morning. Intel plans to expand a warehouse and lab it set up to run cybersecurity tests on its products, including old and discontinued hardware and software, WSJ Pro’s James Rundle reports.
Legacy technology is a big concern for companies: old software and products can introduce cybersecurity problems. Intel’s lab in Costa Rica stores around 3,000 pieces of the company’s hardware and software for remote security research. The lab, which runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, has been open since 2019 and is set to expand next year. Getting old tech into the lab was challenging. Engineers who had moved onto other projects or even left the company contributed their know-how about products from years ago. Intel’s security researchers even looked for discontinued platforms on eBay because they were so hard to find.
Anders Fogh, a Germany-based Intel engineer, said the lab is crucial for his work, especially when he tries to replicate security flaws that external researchers report through Intel’s bug-bounty program.
Intel employees around the world can ask for a specific machine in the configuration of their choice. Technicians make it available through cloud services. The lab gets around 1,000 requests a month to build equipment for remote tests.
More below.
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A few years ago, executives at Intel Corp. began to realize they had a problem. The company was making dozens of new products each year, from chips to software platforms, but it didn’t have a formal method for cataloging and storing older technology so engineers could test it for security flaws.
Some devices, such as Sandy Bridge microprocessors—launched in 2011 and discontinued in 2013—were so scarce that Intel’s security researchers resorted to combing the internet for them.
“We had to actually go on eBay and start looking for these platforms,” said Mohsen Fazlian, general manager of Intel’s product assurance and security unit.
Intel’s issue reflects a wider concern: Legacy technology can introduce cybersecurity weaknesses. Tech makers constantly improve their products to take advantage of speed and power increases, but customers don’t always upgrade at the same pace. This creates a long tail of old products that remain in widespread use, vulnerable to attacks.
Intel’s answer to this conundrum was to create a warehouse and laboratory in Costa Rica, where the company already had a research-and-development lab, to store the breadth of its technology and make the devices available for remote testing. After planning began in mid-2018, the Long-Term Retention Lab was up and running in the second half of 2019.
Read the full story.
Cybersecurity
Chinese state-run companies limit use of Tencent. Managers at at least nine state-run Chinese companies, including China Mobile Ltd. , China Construction Bank Corp. and China National Petroleum Corp., told employees that any chat groups set up for work purposes on Weixin could contain sensitive information and should be shut down and deleted. Weixin is Tencent’s dominant messaging app in China and the domestic sister app of WeChat. The companies also warned employees to be cautious about using Weixin for work-related communications. The companies haven’t publicly disclosed security concerns over the app.
Beijing has recently stepped up scrutiny of internet giants including Tencent. On Wednesday, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information and Technology told app stores that Tencent needs government approval before it updates existing apps or launches new ones. (WSJ)
New tech poses challenges for U.S. spies. Omnipresent surveillance cameras, biometric border controls and location trackers on smartphones and other devices are obstacles for the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence officers. Artificial intelligence is making it easier and faster for foreign adversaries to sort through data and identify spies. While advanced technologies will also help U.S. authorities gather intelligence, the same technologies will likely give authoritarian societies such as China and Russia an advantage because they can exert greater control over them, a January report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said.
Recent examples show how technology can expose spies. A suspected U.S. intelligence officer held a supposedly clandestine meeting with Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2017, days before Kim Jong Nam was assassinated. That meeting was captured by a hotel’s security camera and became public knowledge. In December, investigative website Bellingcat named and published photographs of three Russian intelligence officers who it said shadowed and attempted to kill Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny. Bellingcat used phone and travel data to track the intelligence operatives. (WSJ)
Israel restricts spyware exports. Israel reduced the number of countries where its companies can export hacking tools and cyberweapons to exclude countries that aren’t democracies. Companies can continue to export to countries in Europe and members of the Five Eyes alliance. The U.S., U.K., New Zealand, Australia and Canada are members of the Five Eyes alliance. The U.S. Department of Commerce also recently added two Israeli companies, NSO Group and Candiru, to its entity list, making it more difficult for them to access technology and products made by American companies. NSO Group has faced increased criticism since reports about its Pegasus software came out in July. (PC Mag)
Civilians in Iran and Israel get caught up in cyberwar. Israel and Iran have engaged in a covert cyberwar that has widened to include civilian targets on a large scale. Two U.S. defense officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, attributed a recent cyberattack on Iran’s nationwide fuel distribution system to Israel. That attack paralyzed 4,300 gas stations, and it took 12 days to have service fully restored. Days later, there were cyberattacks against a major medical facility and a popular LGBTQ dating site in Israel, which officials there attributed to Iran. The latest attacks are thought to be the first to do widespread harm to many civilians.
U.S. authorities have warned of Iranian attempts to hack into computer networks of American critical infrastructure including hospitals. (New York Times)
Privacy News
Bipartisan momentum grows in the Senate for antitrust tech bills. Lawmakers in both parties are endorsing bills that would introduce legal constraints on search engines, e-marketplaces, app stores and other online platforms. There was an earlier push in the House for antitrust legislation, and the House Judiciary Committee passed far-reaching bills in June. Now, twelve Senators are backing the proposed American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which would treat large marketplaces such as Amazon’s or Google’s search engine like a dominant railroad operator that is central to commerce.
The growing momentum for antitrust legislation targeting tech giants comes as lawmakers push for greater privacy protections for children and others. (WSJ)
Big Number
$17 Million
Amount that the Australian Federal Police recently prevented cybercriminals from stealing from Australians’ retirement savings accounts. The amount is equivalent to $24 million Australian dollars.
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