Posted: Friday, 5 January 2018 @ 12:49
Microsoft, Apple and Linux will now have to update their
operating systems worldwide due to a major flaw in the Intel chip design.
Millions of computers from the last 10 years are believed to be affected.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have stated
that a fix is being created and that they are aware of the issue. Intel have
also stated that they are working on a fix and the flaw may not be limited to
their processors.
Usually, when a security problem is discovered by
researchers, the relevant company is informed of the issue in order for a fix
to be created. Both parties tend to not make the issue known to the public
until a fix has been created. This is done to prevent the issue being
exploited.
In this case however, the information was leaked before a
patch could be produced. Intel were planning on unveiling the flaw next week
with many top researchers stating that a secrecy pact has also been made.
This could potentially place Intel in a bad light as a flaw
has been made public with no fix ready for it. Furthermore, the performance of
computers could be slowed down by up to 30% according to experts. This claim
however has been combated by Intel with them claiming that the impacts would
not be significant and that they would be “mitigated over time”.
Microsoft Azure, Google and Amazon which are all significant
cloud platforms could also be affected.
This information comes from The
Register who revealed the flaw to the public.
This issue has also caused shares in Intel to fall since it
was made public.
The NCSC have advised that users at home as well as
organisations install patches as soon as they are released in order to protect
their systems from threats.