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Two major flaws in computer chips could leave a huge number of computers and smartphones vulnerable to security concerns, researchers revealed Wednesday. And a U.S. government-backed body warned that the chips themselves need to be replaced to completely fix the problems. The flaws could allow an attacker to read sensitive data stored in the memory, like passwords, or look at what tabs someone has open on their computer, researchers found. Daniel Gruss, a researcher from Graz University of Technology who helped identify the flaw, said it may be difficult to execute an attack, but billions of devices were impacted. Related:...

Like the Meltdown bug, the Spectre bug is a hardware bug in the form of a CPU design flaw. Unlike the Meltdown bug which only affects Intel processors, the Spectre bug impacts Intel, AMD, and some ARM (used in many smart phones and other mobile devices) processors. These three are by far the most common CPUs on the planet, running literally billions of devices. In a Spectre attack, the CPU is tricked into executing instructions that it normally would not, causing leaks in the victims memory address space.

If you’re confused by the avalanche of early reports, denials, and conflicting statements about the massive security issues announced today, don’t worry — you’re far from the only one. Here’s what you need to know about Meltdown and Spectre, the two huge bugs that affect practically every computer and device out there. What are these flaws? Short answer: Bugs at a fundamental level that allow critical information stored deep inside computer systems to be exposed. Security researchers released official documentation — complete with nicknames and logos —  of two major flaws found in nearly all modern central processing units, or...

Microsoft has warned some PC users they will not be able to apply an emergency Windows patch because their security software is incompatible. The out-of-bounds update was issued by Microsoft yesterday to address the Meltdown and Spectre flaws in Intel chips. These vulnerabilities affect most PCs and servers, and can be exploited to allow an attacker to read sensitive information, such as passwords, from protected memory. The Spectre flaw also affects AMD chips, but is considerably more difficult to exploit, as well as a small number of Arm-based processors. However, not every Microsoft system will be able to apply the...

What is the Meltdown bug? Most of the bugs that make the news are software bugs, but the Meltdown bug is a hardware bug (in the form of a design flaw) that affects Intel processors going back several generations. In a nut shell, the Meltdown bug is a brand new way to (possibly) steal your information.

Only Intel machines are affected by Meltdown Details have emerged on two major processor security flaws this week, and the industry is scrambling to issue fixes and secure machines for customers. Dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre,” the flaws affect nearly every device made in the past 20 years. The Meltdown flaw only affects Intel processors, and researchers have already released proof of concept code that could lead to attacks using Meltdown. The vulnerabilities allow an attacker to compromise the privileged memory of a processor by exploiting the way processes run in parallel. They also allow an attacker to use JavaScript code...

Possibly in cleaning uo corruption, the Trump administration may have fired the guys who forced Intel to leave this back door in for them to use as needed.

Here’s what you need to know about Meltdown and Spectre, the two huge bugs that affect practically every computer and device out there. What are these flaws? Short answer: Bugs at a fundamental level that allow critical information stored deep inside computer systems to be exposed. Security researchers released official documentation — complete with nicknames and logos —  of two major flaws found in nearly all modern central processing units, or CPUs. It’s not a physical problem with the CPUs themselves, or a plain software bug you might find in an application like Word or Chrome. It’s in between, at...

The fix requires major OS rewrites which will probably make your computer run slower. An extremely severe security flaw has been found to affect nearly every Intel processor made in the past decade or more, giving any hackers who might know how to exploit it access to protected information systemwide. The Register reports that programmers are rushing to make the sweeping changes necessary to protect against the vulnerability on Linux and Windows operating systems, with such fixes required on macOS as well. Even worse, you can expect these vital updates to noticeably slow down your computer. The design flaw in...

The House Intelligence Committee is set to interview Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and British publicist Rob Goldstone on Monday as part of its ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, CNN reported. Wasserman Schultz resigned as head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) last July after leaked emails showed party officials appeared to favor Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Wasserman Schultz has also denied knowing about an arrangement for the DNC to help fund a dossier containing salacious allegations about President Trump. Clinton’s campaign and the DNC reportedly paid millions to a law firm involved...

<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned President Trump to thank him for information from the CIA that foiled a terrorist attack being planned in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin said.</p> <p>The information helped “find and detain a group of terrorists who were planning explosions” at Kazan Cathedral as well as other centrally located and crowded places in Russia’s second-largest city. This is a developing story. It will be updated.</p>

Bugs can be exploited to extract info, potentially insert rootkits Intel today admitted its Management Engine (ME), Server Platform Services (SPS), and Trusted Execution Engine (TXE) are vulnerable to multiple worrying security flaws, based on the findings of external security experts.The firmware-level bugs allow logged-in administrators, and malicious or hijacked high-privilege processes, to run code beneath the operating system to spy on or meddle with the computer completely out of sight of other users and admins. The holes can also be exploited by network administrators, or people masquerading as admins, to remotely infect machines with spyware and invisible rootkits, potentially.Meanwhile,...

Intel announced on Wednesday it hired the former head of AMD's graphics business and will start a new high-end graphics group inside the company. Raja Koduri will join Intel as chief architect and senior vice president of the newly formed Core and Visual Computing Group, and general manager of a new initiative to drive edge computing solutions. The battle over the red-hot graphics chip market just got more interesting. Raja Koduri Intel announced on Wednesday it hired the former head of AMD's graphics business and will start a new high-performance graphics group inside the company. Raja Koduri was named...

Major American foundations have given millions of dollars in funding to Islamic organizations accused of having ties to radical Islamist movements or designated terrorist organizations and a group of activists are trying to convince them to stop. Groups like Islamic Relief Worldwide, which some countries have banned for allegedly funding Hamas and other terrorist organizations, have received millions of dollars from corporate charities like the GE Foundation, community foundations like the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and independent foundations like George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.Researchers with the Middle East Forum, an activist group devoted to promoting American interests abroad, identified the financial...

Washington, D.C. - Michael Maloof was back in the game. He and another Pentagon aide, David Wurmser, drove the short distance from the Pentagon to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. It was early October, a good season in Washington, but Maloof’s nerves were on edge during the scenic ride along the tree-lined George Washington Parkway. snip Maloof was a legend within the Pentagon circle that tracked arms proliferation. His office was obscure, but it performed a crucial national security function. snip The Pentagon wanted years of intelligence reporting on al Qaeda, Iraq, Iran and other potential targets in the war...

A CEO who bailed on President Donald Trump’s now-defunct American Manufacturing Council imported workers to take jobs in the United States. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich left Trump’s manufacturing council after he disagreed with the response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. “I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them,’’ Krzanich wrote in a blog post. “We should honor—not attack—those who have stood up for equality and other cherished American values.’’ But, as Trump’s manufacturing council was set up to bring back manufacturing and jobs to the...

Krzanich is the third executive to leave President Donald Trump's council in the span of a day — Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier both resigned earlier on Monday following the recent episode of white supremacist violence in Virginia. "I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing," Krzanich said in Monday's blog post. "I have already made clear my abhorrence at the recent hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville, and earlier today I called on all leaders...

Glenn Simpson, whose Fusion GPS firm has been tied to anti-Trump efforts and pro-Russian lobbying, will not talk to lawmakers in response to a subpoena, the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committe said Friday.... ..."Simpson’s attorney has asserted that his client will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in response to the subpoena," Grassley and Feinstein said. During the campaign, Fusion GPS contracted former MI-6 agent Christopher Steele to look into rumors about Trump's financial and social connections in Russia.

Dark side of the hyperthreading loom  While the war is blazing between Intel and AMD fanboys over the superiority of the latest range of chips, Debian developers have spotted some rather nasty coding in Chipzilla’s latest creations. During April and May, Intel started updating processor documentation with a new errata note and it turned out that the reason was that Skylake and Kaby Lake silicon has a microcode bug it did not want any one to find out about. The errata is described in detail on the Debian mailing list, and affects Skylake and Kaby Lake Intel Core processors in...

Debian developers have issued an advisory to disable hyper-threading with Intel and Skylake- Kaby Lake generation processors. The CPUs can cause problems under certain conditions, in fact on all operating systems.They advside you to turn it off in the BIOS, and thus forfeit the extra performance you gain. It seems there is s defect for the CPUs in question that can cause compiler- and application crashes, unexpected behavior of programs and incorrect output software: This warning advisory is relevant for users of systems with the Intelprocessors code-named "Skylake" and "Kaby Lake". These are: the 6th and7th generation Intel Core processors (desktop,...