However having just read this https://www.facebook.com/dragosr/posts/10151655183445588 I can see he has explained much of what I was witnessing on some systems as well.
Cant rule out a modern day version of one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel considering the Windows MSR partition I have copies of which effectively stripes the Windows Partition as well.
Some people are desperate to keep this quiet though, so perhaps suggesting what you have is your way to introduce doubt into an argument which is after all a valid debating technique.