Meltdown and Spectre Computer Flaws Affect Nearly Everyone!

The news about the two major flaws in computer processors from Intel, AMD and ARM not only represents a major threat to individual data privacy, but to the computer industry in general and cloud computing specifically.

The Meltdown and Spectre issues are design flaws in the chips themselves. They say a software fix for every operating system is now being dispatched and unless you can do the upgrade, your computer/tablet/phone may be vulnerable.

The software fix is only for the Meltdown issue. There is no fix for Spectre...

Unfortunately, these design "flaws" make it possible for "hackers" to access passwords and other data, but not alter or corrupt data. Notice the quotes I put above...

What if these are not "flaws" but features that allow agencies like the NSA to snoop at the supposedly most secure section of our computerized devices. They wouldn't need or want to mess with your data, as they want to monitor what you do, and have secret access to all your accounts.

The fact that these "flaws" affect every major chip maker, in the same way is suspicious. They supposedly used the same design for the core computer kernel, seemingly against copyrights, no?

And the fact that these "flaws" have existed for as long as 10 years, without being noticed or exploited seems like more than a coincidence.

The fallout from this could be major. Fortunately it appears the problem was kept secret for the last six months, as people who worked on fixing it had to sign non-disclosure agreements.

The worse part of all this in the long run is that computers are still being sold with these "defects". And it will likely be more than a year before new systems without the bugs will be available.

So what does that mean for new computer/tablet/phone sales? What does it mean that this information is now in the public and hacker domains, making exploits more likely?

Is this why Apple suddenly dropped their chip maker for another recently?

Will paper records make a comeback? Will people abandon those devices that can't be fixed?

Things are starting to make sense now. We all knew the NSA could reach deep into our devices when it wants to. Now we know how...

 

How to protect your PC against the major ‘Meltdown’ CPU security flaw.

It seems Meltdown only affects Intel chips, but Spectre affects Intel, AMD and ARM.
Meltdown affects all Intel chips from 1995 on.

Spectre and Meltdown processor security flaws – explained

 

Apple: Mac And iOS Vulnerable To Meltdown And Spectre Flaws