Bad news folks! Turns out our saving grace from the Spectre vulnerability from Intel comes with a number of its own problems. Just when we thought the Spectre and Meltdown menace will only be visible on our rear mirrors.
Intel made the shocking announcement on Monday. The company said the officially Intel-issued patch for Spectre vulnerability comes with critical problems for some users. Intel further encouraged users not to update just yet; that is if you haven’t already done so.
“We recommend that OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software vendors and end users top deployment of current [patch] versions. As they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior,” read the statement by Intel.
Intel firmware update for Spectre bad for your computer
Intel has published a list of devices negatively affected by the patch; see the full list at this link. Boy, is it a long list! Intel is probably not the people’s favorite brand right now. First, its chips have been suffering from a critical vulnerability all along, and the fix they issued out, comes with additional problems?
“I apologize for any disruption this change in guidance may cause. The security of our products is critical for Intel, our customers, and partners, and for me, personally. I assure you we are working around the clock to ensure we are addressing these issues,” said Intel Executive VP, Navin Shenoy.
It might pick your interest to know that Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sold $39 million worth of the company stock and option shortly after learning about the vulnerability; but not before the matter became public knowledge.
But let us give the Intel that has powered our computers for decades the benefit of the doubt and hopefully, they are working around the clock to issue a patch. One that fixes the problem without introducing more problems.
