Intel Announces Silicon-Level Security Technologies, Industry Adoption at RSA 2018

Intel has unveiled Intel® Threat Detection Technology (Intel® TDT), a set of silicon-level capabilities that will help the ecosystem detect new classes of threats, and Intel® Security Essentials, a framework that standardizes the built-in security features across Intel processors. They also announced a strengthened academic partnership with Purdue University, to help accelerate the development and availability of cybersecurity talent.

Introducing Intel Threat Detection Technology

Intel Threat Detection Technology leverages silicon-level telemetry and functionality to help industry partners improve the detection of advanced cyber threats and exploits. The first two Intel Threat Detection Technology capabilities, including implementation plans by Microsoft and Cisco.

The first new capability is Accelerated Memory Scanning. Current scanning technologies can detect system memory-based cyberattacks, but at the cost of CPU performance. With Accelerated Memory Scanning, the scanning is handled by Intel’s integrated graphics processor, enabling more scanning, while reducing the impact on performance and power consumption. Early benchmarking on Intel test systems show CPU utilization dropped from 20 percent to as little as 2 percent.

Microsoft will integrate Accelerated Memory Scanning into Microsoft Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection’s (ATP) antivirus capability this month.

The second Intel Threat Detection Technology is Intel Advanced Platform Telemetry. Intel Advanced Platform Telemetry combines platform telemetry, with machine learning algorithms, to improve the detection of advanced threats, while reducing false positives and minimizing performance impact. The first Cisco product to take advantage of this integration will be the Cisco Tetration platform, which provides data center security and cloud workload protection. Intel Editorial – RSA Conference – April 16, 2018

Intel Security Essentials: Built-in Security Foundation

Intel is also launching Intel Security Essentials, which will ensure a consistent set of critical root-of-trust hardware security capabilities across Intel® Core™, Intel Xeon and Intel Atom® processors. These capabilities are platform integrity technologies for secure boot, hardware protections (for data, keys and other digital assets), accelerated cryptography and trusted execution enclaves to protect applications at runtime.

This standard set of capabilities will accelerate trusted computing as customers build solutions rooted in hardware-based protections. Further, these capabilities, directly integrated into Intel silicon, are designed to improve the security posture of computing, lower the cost of deploying security solutions and minimize the impact of security on performance.

Strengthening Academic Partnership with Purdue University

It is strengthening cybersecurity partnerships with academia to advance research and begin to close the talent gap in the industry. Purdue University is announcing the launch of its Design for Security Badge Program for students and professionals, developed in partnership with Intel.