Intel chip security problems.

https://interestingengineering.com/9...-within-a-week

I wonder whether it is just me that is NOT reassured by the CEO's comments;

no updates for chips older than five years.......

we have received no confirmed reports of data theft......

the fixes will affect the performance as it is workload dependent.......

it was made public before we reacted and hence we were protecting our reputation (implied not a quote)........

There seeme to be ne things missing; an aplogiy for their handling - they have known about the problem for some time according to other sources but failed to let anyone know......

My thoughts in a nutshell Dave.

Edited OP as it was less than clear when the URL was parsed.

Dave

I have read industry comment that this is normal; that the problems are kept secret so as not to provide information to persons who might exploit the flaw, and not until there is a solution developed.

Even if they had announced it could any users themselves have developed a way to defend themselves - maybe not as it is likely that only the designers of the chips have sufficient knowledge and expertise.

Just my thoughts

Geoff

Just to let you know that Apple released their updates on Monday 8th for members using Safari with High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan and iOS 11 to "help defend" against Spectre.

I just wonder when Microsoft will get round to doing the same.?

I had a big Win 10 update a couple of days ago Drew, possibly that was it.

might be - might not - check what Win 10 version you are running. there was a big update recently (Creators update I think) but that didn't have the update for the Intel issue - you need to re-run your updates to get ver 1709. If that doesn't work you can do a manual download and install.

as for the chip problem, this has been known about since at least the middle of 2017 but the info was embargoed while the chip makers and software suppliers looked at the best ways of mitigating against the worst problems - the info "leaked out" at the start of January via The Register (an IT on line magazine). some software suppliers (Apple mainly) had released updates to counter the issues "silently" at the end of 2017 - and more recently further updates for iPhone/Pad (iOS 11.2.2). Intel are dues to release some extra microcode sometime soon.

the downside of some of the security updates is some impact on performance although this is only likely to be seen on CPU intensive devices like cloud servers, etc. very little effect for "everyday" PC users.

as for exploits - none in the wild yet although proof of this has been shown. and apparently, despite the problems, exploiting it will not be easy and provided you run security updates should help protect you.

a side issue of this is that the CEO of Intel cashed in a load of shares in December and before the news leaked out and Intel stock took a hit - he's now being investigated for insider trading!! as usual he's in denial that he knew of the problem, even though some experts say that the problem has been known within Intel since around 2014!

Does this tell you owt FB?

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Farnd it.

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no - you need to look at Settings/System/About - then look at Windows Specifications to find what version you are running. If it's 1709 then you have the latest Win 10 version