Wow, seems I was right to suspect the Intel-ME backdoor. Read the following link for an overview of the latest revelations.
In short, Intel ME is now proven to be the NSA backdoor surveillance computer people suspected it to be and it's built into all Intel machines. Now with the exploits out in the open, potentially anybody can do the same. Kinda important to keep a tab on this if you have any amount of money in crypto and use an Intel system for crypto. Btw, this doesn't mean AMD systems are safe, apparently they have something similar, but afaik no publicized way to exploit it.
The only upside for this is that I did not waste my time by figuring out how to remove the Intel-ME-blob, replace the bios on old thinkpads and writing a tutorial for you all at the same time. In case you missed it, it's in my blog-list titled "Run don't hide from the blob", wherein I go into great detail on how to replace the bios and remove Intel ME on a second hand Thinkpad X230.