For some good years, the Apple adopted the interface Thunderbolt (first the second generation, currently the third), from Intel, as the main technology for transferring data and power in many models of Macs. Despite the popularity of this connection, some believe that, perhaps, this is not the best option when it comes to security.
In a webinar (web seminar) held a few days ago, an employee of the Microsoft presented all the engineering involved in the devices Surface latest, as seen in the following excerpt posted by a user on Twitter.
At one point in the video, he explains that no device in the Surface family has a Thunderbolt connection due to the "security threat" that this represents.
No Surface device has Thunderbolt. Why not? Because this is a direct memory access door. If you have a well-prepared accessory that can have access to memory, you can have access to the entire device and all the data stored on it (memory). At the moment, we do not believe that Thunderbolt can provide the security really needed for devices.
THE The Verge he proved the truth of the presentation and found that the Microsoft employee is a technology expert and has worked at the company for more than ten years.
During the seminar (which lasts more than an hour), it was also revealed that Surface devices do not have removable RAM due to similar security concerns.
It is worth remembering, however, that other similar laptops from manufacturers such as Lenovo, Dell and HP have been using Thunderbolt technology for years except the Surface line. In addition, Windows 10 has gained a new security feature to stop attacks from firmware and attacks from ransomware looking for data in kernel (core) of the system by Thunderbolt 3 compatible devices is something that, on the latest Apple machines, is done by T2 security chip.
Microsoft did not comment on the engineer’s presentation and / or claims on the video.
