Threat Level: High
Intel announced last week, in what seemed to be a busy week for bugs, a critical flaw in their processors dating back to 2011.
The flaw is linked to the processor’s “zombie load” function, giving it its name. Zombie load occurs when a computer processor can’t properly process a load of data and needs to ask for help in order to prevent a crash. This function has been exploited to allow hackers to grab any data that was recently been accessed by the processor.
Intel processors are in 76.8% of computers worldwide. That includes both PC and Mac.
Protecting Your Machine
Microsoft, Google, and Apple have all released patches to address the vulnerability. Rather than clicking “Remind me tomorrow”, it’s vital to update your computer in a timely manner.
However, due to the nature of a hardware flaw, the vulnerability will never truly be eliminated.
While Intel itself only rated the threat as “medium”, security experts are fearing it is much worse. “On a scale of 1 to 10, this is ’10’ serious,” said Robert Siciliano, CEO of Safr.me.
What we are doing about it:
ITonDemand is approving the recommended patches and will be sending them out to our user’s machines.
