Every single computer (including cells, tablets, PCs, & servers) has a Central Processing Unit (CPU) made by Intel, AMD, & ARM and security experts found “two problems, called Meltdown and Spectre, could allow hackers to steal the entire memory contents of computers, including mobile devices, personal computers and servers running in so-called cloud computer networks.”  The New York Times report on January 3, 2018 entitled “Researchers Discover Two Major Flaws in the World’s Computers” included these comments:

There is no easy fix for Spectre, which could require redesigning the processors, according to researchers. As for Meltdown, the software patch needed to fix the issue could slow down computers by as much as 30 percent — an ugly situation for people used to fast downloads from their favorite online services.

Meltdown is a particular problem for the cloud computing services run by the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft. By Wednesday evening, Google and Microsoft said they had updated their systems to deal with the flaw.

To take advantage of Meltdown, hackers could rent space on a cloud service, just like any other business customer. Once they were on the service, the flaw would allow them to grab information like passwords from other customers.

Really bad news, but unfortunately very OLD NEWS!

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