Intel confirmed publicly a kill switch exists for the Intel Management Engine, a remote management feature baked into many Intel chips. Positive Technologies researchers believe Intel introduced the kill switch at the behest of the National Security Agency. Intel said the modifications were made at the request of equipment manufacturers in support of their evaluation of the U.S. government s High Assurance Platform program. In May, Intel patched a critical vulnerability that dated back nine years in Intel’s Active Management Technology which is based on Intel ME.
Source: https://threatpost.com/intel-confirms-its-much-loathed-me-feature-has-a-kill-switch/127739/