What you need to know about the big chip security problem

(Jan 4): Intel Corp. said Wednesday that most of the processors running the world’s computers and smartphones have a feature that makes them susceptible to attack. The largest chipmaker is working with rivals and partners on a fix, but the news sparked concern about this fundamental building block of the internet, PCs and corporate networks.

What’s the problem?
Modern processors guess what they’ll have to do next and fetch the data they think they’ll need. That makes everything from supercomputers to smartphones zippy. Unfortunately, as Google researchers discovered, it also provides a way for bad actors to read data that had been thought to be secure. In a worst-case scenario that would let someone access your passwords.

How bad is it?
This won’t stop your computer working and doesn’t provide an avenue for hackers to put malicious software on your machine. There’s been no report so far of anyone’s computer being attacked in this manner, but in theory this puts important data at risk. Hardware and chip-level security has long been pushed by the industry as more tamper-proof than software. Those claims may have been overstated.

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