This time, you should really be scared

[versailles]

Ars Technica:

“Meltdown” and “Spectre”: Every modern processor has unfixable security flaws

[versailles]

More on this from the researchers: https://spectreattack.com/

[mwiggenhorn]

I've been reading up on this and checked to find out that my computer does not have an Intel chip.  YAY!

[versailles]

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@Mary W wrote:

I've been reading up on this and checked to find out that my computer does not have an Intel chip.  YAY!

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 It doesn't matter. AMD chips are impacted too.

[mwiggenhorn]

Rene - shoot.  All the articles I read were about Intel chips.

[versailles]

Mary, check the research paper that I shared: https://spectreattack.com/

[colettelewis]

René I'm going to buy you a "The end of the world is nigh" sandwich board!

These announcements are scary, but what can millions of techidiots like me actually do about these threats?

PS Boardmen have now been banned in London's West End - another slice of history minutiae that has disappeared!

[cupidmedia]

Nichola, if you're not technical, the best thing you can do is keep all your devices up to date with the latest patches for their operating systems, keep your anti-virus up to date and scan regularly, and be sensible about opening files and downloading/running applications.

[anguyenbiz]

I think common sense might apply to this one.  Don't run funky applications on your computer that tries to steal your stuff?  Work better on Macs than Windows obviously, but still...

[ravi_iitian]

Does Murphy’s Law ring a bell?

[allergywriter]

 Soooooo my son the CIA (cloud infrastructure architect - gotta love the acronym) was telling me about this one night over dinner. He says the fix is also a huge problem, because it is slowing everything down. I think it was Friday that the Amazon Cloud servers were being updated and that is what caused the huge slow downs on Reddit, WeatherUnderground, Instagram, etc.  I think the Samsung phones all have had a patch pushed, but not sure about my Apple. I was amazed by the sheer size of the impact.

[anguyenbiz]

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@Cheryl K wrote:

 Soooooo my son the CIA (cloud infrastructure architect - gotta love the acronym) was telling me about this one night over dinner. He says the fix is also a huge problem, because it is slowing everything down. I think it was Friday that the Amazon Cloud servers were being updated and that is what caused the huge slow downs on Reddit, WeatherUnderground, Instagram, etc.  I think the Samsung phones all have had a patch pushed, but not sure about my Apple. I was amazed by the sheer size of the impact.

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But look, at least we can look forward to CPUs release 3-4 years from now to be back up to speed of 2017 👍  There has only been marginal performance improvements the last decade or so, now we’ll see a good performance jump like back in the 90s again.