I just installed the latest version of the Intel Management Engine software from my motherboard manufacturer's website (version 11.6.0.1032).

During installation, I got multiple alerts from my software firewall that it was connecting to the internet, which seemed unusual. I looked closer and it was something (rather fittingly) called Intel Online Connect. In fact, both an Intel Online Connect and an Intel Online Connect Access had been installed (in %programfiles%\Intel).

It wasn't immediately clear what they were, so I searched for 'Intel Online Connect' online and found various copies of a press release [archive], which indicated Intel Online Connect was something to do with online payments. Here's an excerpt:

By providing hardware-level data—in the form of a secure device code—during the 3-D Secure authentication process, issuers can have even greater confidence to approve low-risk transactions, or to require additional verification for suspicious ones. Called Intel® Online Connect, the solution will be included in 7th Gen Intel® Core™ systems and will work with the existing 3-D Secure protocol and the upcoming 2.0 version, which EMVCo is expected to release this year.

I carried on looking and I noticed that Intel Online Connect Access included a driver – more specifically an NDIS filter driver [archive].

Here it is:
Intel Technology Access Filter Driver

(The Epfw one is my ESET Smart Security, so I'm not alarmed to see that one there.)

Looking at the INF file and the registry, it has a FilterType of 2, which makes it a modifying filter [archive]:

[Inst_Ndi]
HKR, Ndi,Service,,"ndisrd"
HKR, Ndi,CoServices,0x00010000,"ndisrd"
HKR, Ndi,HelpText,,%ndisrfl_HelpText%
HKR, Ndi,FilterClass,, compression
HKR, Ndi,FilterType,0x00010001,0x00000002
HKR, Ndi\Interfaces,UpperRange,,"noupper"
HKR, Ndi\Interfaces,LowerRange,,"nolower"
HKR, Ndi\Interfaces, FilterMediaTypes,,"ethernet,wan,tunnel,ppip"
HKR, Ndi,FilterRunType, 0x00010001, 1 ;this filter must run before any protocol can bind to the below miniport

Whilst I don't know what this driver is actually doing, I do know it's not going to be doing it much longer on this PC.