Shortly after his Keynote we had the chance to ask Pat Gelsinger VP at Intel for a statement concerning the hacked serial number with the PIII. He pointed out that he is not surprised at all. "We expected this to happen sooner or later" But he also mentioned, that the serial number is only one part or the first step to crack an entire transaction. He pointed out that the BIOS settings vary that much that it is almost impossible to crack that on an automated bases.

Earlier on the IDF he also mentioned that the security on the system, where the serial number is also only one piece, is only a third of a complete security package Intel sees as the way to go.