Spectre and Meltdown

If you’ve been watching the news you’ve likely heard at least one of those terms. But what are they? Put simply they are a security flaw in the main chip that runs computers. Now, what do these flaws do? Over the past 20 years, computer chips have been designed to run as fast as possible, as a result of these features certain security holes were left open. This wasn’t a problem until recently when people discovered that they could be exploited, resulting in a lot of panic on the industry end while they try to patch the vulnerabilities. The flaws are so fundamental and widespread that security researchers are calling them catastrophic. All that aside - what does this mean for you? Not much, you’ll need to keep your devices and software updated (*) this will reduce the chances of an attack affecting you. However, if you notice your devices acting oddly (spontaneous reboots or other system problems) give us a call - it could mean one of the updates isn’t working properly with your system and we have ways to work around it. The only noticeable change you may see over time is the possibility of your devices becoming slower - remember the reason the hole exists what because leaving it made your computer faster; when the vulnerability is patched there is the chance of slower speeds. The good news is that moving forward the new chips that are made will not have this security hole, however, this may take several years before everyone has made the transition. Until then just keep up your good security habits and make sure your devices are up to date with the latest patches. Did you know? * We offer solutions to always ensure you are fully up to date with software patches both from Microsoft and 3rd party software vendors. Please ask us about this offering.