There has been plenty of (digital) ink spilled in recent days about widespread processor flaws known as “Meltdown” and “Spectre.” We round up five articles that will help you understand these security vulnerabilities, how they were discovered and their likely impact.
Google details CPU flaws, claims AMD, ARM and Intel all affected
Google has come forward to claim responsibility for discovering a pair of serious security holes in Intel processors that run almost 9 in 10 computers in the world. And worse: the company has echoed a statement by Intel yesterday that the flaws are not specific to that company’s chips. Contrary to published reports, a blog post on the Google Security Blog by Matt Linton, a Senior Security Engineer at Google and Pat Parseghian, a Technical Program Manager said that flaws dubbed “Specter” (PDF) and “Meltdown” (PDF) are not limited to chips by Intel, but exist in central processing unit (CPU) chips by a wide range of vendors including Intel, AMD and ARM. Google discovered the flaws The flaws were discovered by Jann Horn, a researcher for Google’s Project Zero security team, discovered the flaw and showed how malicious actors could game a common CPU feature known as “speculative execution” to […]
Google Docs Scam Highlights Phishing’s Low, Low Bar
In-brief: There were a thousand reasons not to click on that Google Docs link…but thousands of people did anyway. Why?
Google Looks Beyond Passwords To Secure Data, Assets
In-brief: Google is pushing an approach to network security dubbed “tiered access,” demoting the trusted password, which is now just one piece of data that is needed to get access to sensitive data and resources on Google’s network.
WiFi Chip Flaw in iPhone is Really Bad News for IoT
In-brief: a remotely exploitable flaw in a common hardware component used in phones by Apple, Samsung and others underscores the risk posed by software embedded in system on chip components that are found in almost every connected device, experts warn.
