[MaxfordAndSons]

Isn't it unlikely that an individual engineer (or even a handful) could effect a design level compromise on such a massive project as building a processor? Not only because of the managerial oversight they'd have to circumvent, but because of the overall system complexity. As sibs have pointed it, it would seem much more practical to just compromise Intel at a corporate/managerial level.

[grandalf]

> Isn't it unlikely that an individual engineer (or even a handful) could effect a design level compromise on such a massive project as building a processor?

Yes, very unlikely. Something like the Intel Management Engine would be a much easier target.