People tend to trust hardware more that software. In fact, it is often assumed that hardware cannot have its security compromised, so when people say that a feature is "implemented in hardware" it often ends any discussion about its security. Why is this? I think that the reasons for this are as follows.

• People think that hardware is simple.
• People think that software systems mix data and program into a complex soup, while hardware has a well-defined architecture that can't be changed by an attacker.
• People have intuitions about hardware. "If A is not plugged into B, then A cannot tell its secrets to B."
• People think that software systems can get "infected" and remain in that state for a long time. They assume that hardware is reset to its original state when the power is cycled.