Intel pledges transparency after Spectre, Meltdown vulnerability
Brian Krzanich promises to tell all as it patches CPU flaws.
The last week or so has seen a lot of activity around Meltdown and Spectre, two CPU flaws in modern chips from the likes of AMD and Intel. Apple, Microsoft and Google have provided interim fixes for their respective hardware, but it will take much more than simple patches (that can cause more harm than good) to truly eradicate the issue. Just a few hours after Intel revealed that there may be more slowdowns from its Meltdown processor fix, the company's CEO Brian Krzanich has written an open letter to further detail the steps Intel is taking to deal with the issues.
Krzanich promises that by January 15th, 90 percent of Intel CPUs made in the last five years will be updated, with the remaining 10 percent patched by the end of the month. The company will then start working on updates for older chips "as prioritized by (its) customers."
The Intel CEO also notes that the impact of Meltdown and Spectre patches on performance can vary widely, but that Intel will provide progress reports on the patches its working on. "To accelerate the security of the entire industry, we commit to publicly identify significant security vulnerabilities following rules of responsible disclosure and, further, we commit to working with the industry to share hardware innovations that will accelerate industry-level progress in dealing with side-channel attacks," wrote Krzanich in his statement. He also committed to help fund academic and independent research into possible security issues in the future.
