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Microsoft has said this choice is intentional, claiming that Thunderbolt 3’s status as a direct memory access port can leave a device open to vulnerabilities.

However, Wired reports that this Kernel Direct Memory Access Protection has not been universally implemented.

“No Surface device has Thunderbolt. Why not? Because that’s a direct memory access port,” explains the Microsoft employee.

“If you have a well prepared stick that you can put into the direct memory access port, then you can access the full device in memory and all data that’s stored in memory. We don’t believe, at this moment, that Thunderbolt can deliver the security that’s really needed from the devices.”

For all its versatility, USB-C is still based on the USB standard, which makes it vulnerable to a nasty firmware attack, and researchers are also concerned about other attacks that piggyback on the plug's direct memory access.