[TeMPOraL]

Modern electronics are incredibly complex. For instance, did you know that your CPU most likely has its own web server on board? It would be easy for a dedicated party - one that also controls manufacturing - to introduce changes on PCB or even component level. Changes that you'd have no way of figuring out they're there.

[threatofrain]

I'm quite ignorant on this subject and find your statement surprising. Are you talking about modern intel cpu's?

[TeMPOraL]

Correction: it's on the chipset, not CPU itself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Active_Management_Techno...

Still, it runs out-of-band, it can be accessed even if your computer is turned off, as long as it's plugged in to a power source.

[ionised]

I'm guessing this is something that cannot be disabled in the BIOS/UEFI?

* EDIT * Actually, it looks like you can.