Yesterday, at our computer service shop, a tech alerted me to something. Intel wrestles with two severe bugs: Meltdown and Spectre. So consider this a consumer alert: Intel fights CPU bugs.
But how bad is the problem? These bugs are capable of appearing on every CPU ever made in the last 20 years! So to put it in layman’s terms: Nobody is safe from this one! Then, these bugs let hackers use JavaScript to access memory during this cyber attack. This memory could contain anything, including passwords, usernames, addresses, places, codes, you name it. This is what makes Meltdown and Spectre so dangerous.
However, maybe we shouldn’t panic. Because Intel and other IT support companies say they made significant progress in giving out security patches and firmware protection. They believe these will guard against these two super bugs. Furthermore, Intel is issuing updates to all of it’s machines. According to Google Project Zero, they will help make these machine immune to these bugs. In fact, one spokesperson said that in the last week, Intel gave more updates this week then they have in the past five years. That just shows you how serious this is. It also shows you how dedicated Intel is to fighting Meltdown and Spectre.
Microsoft and Apple also address this potential crisis. They’re both offering either patches and fixes to fight this. Another thing that strikes me about the consumer alert: Intel Fights CPU bugs. Why is mainstream media so silent about this? Yes, some tech news does report it. But it had to hear it from a colleague. This sort of threat to this many systems should be breaking news. But for some reason, it’s not. This is the reason I’m reporting it. Not only so that you can be informed, but also so you can be safe. How can we be safe if we don’t know?