Intel Puts Security Front and Center

Whether it’s in wireless tire-pressure car sensors, U.S. military computers, or the 2008 Spanair plane that crashed and killed 154 passengers, malicious software seems ever more dangerous. Embedded systems get infected, and in the brave new world of smartphones and iPads, the problem might get worse before it gets better. Host Steven Cherry talks with technology consultant Charles King about the strange logic of Intel’s US $7.7 billion purchase of software security firm McAfee, and with Ruby Lee, director of the Princeton Architecture Lab for Multimedia and Security at Princeton University, about the difficulties and benefits of putting security on a chip.