Sidebar

Exclusive Reports

29
Fri, Mar

Tech Security
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Apple and Microsoft have commenced rolling out fixes to protect against Spectre and Meltdown Chip flaws as promised. These are the two major flaws found in most computer chips that could affect virtually all processors and make such devices vulnerable to hack.

Users are thereby advised to promptly take advantage of the release to protect their devices.

The flaws affect modern processors including Intel (INTC), AMD and ARM that use "speculative execution" to enhance performance.

However, according to experts, fixing the problems may slow a computer's performance, particularly on devices more than five years old.

Some companies learnt about the flaws ahead of the public release and got fixes ready, but they aren't all available yet.

For now, there's only one thing users can do: Update devices and browser software when the updates are made available.

The good news is researchers and companies said there is no evidence of these flaws being exploited in the wild.

However, it would be difficult to determine if a computer has been exploited because there doesn't appear to be records saved in computer log files. It's also not clear how easy it would be to exploit these flaws.

The vulnerabilities could permit a hacker to steal users passwords and other sensitive information.

Apple

The company already released mitigations against Meltdown in its most recent versions of iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV software. It is working on updates for Safari to protect users against Spectre and expects to release them "in the coming days."

Check "Settings" on your iPhone and iPad and "Updates" in the Mac App Store to ensure your devices are up-to-date.

The Apple Watch is not affected by Meltdown or Spectre.

Google

Fixes: Released for Android, Google Cloud, and pending for Chrome.

Google (GOOG) provides a helpful list of its products and services affected by the chip bugs, as well as their mitigation status.

Microsoft

Fixes: Released on Windows, servers, cloud, and Edge and Internet Explorer browsers.

Microsoft also provides guidance for consumers on its website.

The company already released updates for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 operating systems. If you don't have automatic updates turned on, go to Windows Settings to manually update.

The latest versions of Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer include fixes for the bugs.

Firefox

The most recent version of Firefox contains a fix for these flaws.

 

 

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS