Intel Closes $7.68 Billion McAfee Acquisition

"Bringing security down to the hardware level only means you'll be enabling virus-access to the hardware level"

How does that follow? We've had "security" at the hardware level for years. The hardware is as accessible as it'll ever be -- it's only going to get more locked down from here.

1) How are they responsible for the holes? 2) How would this make them money?

Fixing security vulnerabilities in every piece of software ever written (or to be written) seems like a hell of a lot more work than hardening the processor. Non-executable memory, for example, eliminates a whole class of vulnerabilities in which illicitly added code is run from the stack or heap.

To suggest that further work on the processor security model is a waste because people ought to have done it right the first time is blind to the fact that people will screw up no matter what.