Intel recently became a victim of a colossal internal data breach, as approximately 20 GB of some Intel documents and tools started appearing in a data cache uploaded online.
The materials appear to be spanning over ten years. The leak seemingly features everything from Intel presentation templates, to BIOS code and others, which would represent one of the most severe intellectual property leaks of a chipmaker in years.
The Discovery
Till Kottmann, a Swiss software engineer and open security advocate said that the recent leak is part of a broader IP release schedule.
Kottmann gave the name “Intel excondifential Lake Platform Release” to the release.
According to ZDNet, Kottmann is a regular sighting in IP leaks, and he gained popularity for publishing several other tech company leaks.
Intel’s Response
Intel responded to the leak by issuing a short statement to the press.
The statement acknowledged the leak and revealed that Intel officials believe that it came from the Intel Resource and Design Center, a secure repository for partners to access restricted content.
Here is the official statement:
“We are investigating this situation. The information appears to come from the Intel Resource and Design Center, which hosts information for use by our customers, partners, and other external parties who have registered for access. We believe an individual with access downloaded and shared this data.”
Damage
Though nobody has yet reported finding sensitive information like Intel CPU or GPU design schematics.
Still, the leaked material appears valuable for the company and possibly harmful in the long run.
Firmware mishaps are especially amusing, as they require reverse engineering to remove useful information out of them.
Further analysis can reveal valuable information that hadn’t been shared prior.
