Dive Brief:
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Intel CEO Brian Krzanich reassured the company's customer base that by Jan. 15 approximately 90% of Intel CPUs from the last five years will have updates for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities, according to a company announcement. The remaining updates will be issued by the end of the month.
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The company is continuing to learn about the potential impacts on processor performance, said Krzanich. However, the impact on processor performance "varies widely, based on the specific workload, platform configuration and mitigation technique."
- Krzanich spoke this week at CES, telling attendees that Intel's "primary focus has been to keep customers' data safe," reports USA Today. But what was noticeably missing from Krzanich's presentation was an apology, according to Slate.
Dive Insight:
Intel aggressively pushed back following reports that a nearly 20-year old chip flaw was exclusive to the company. The flaw was more widespread than initially thought, resulting in an industrywide patch campaign.
Krzanich echoed much of Intel's initial statements, offering customers security patches. However, Google and third-party researchers found the only way to completely deter risk is to replace all CPU hardware.
Intel already announced it had no plans of recalling the vulnerable chips. Instead, Intel, and vendors with Intel chips in their products, including Microsoft, have been issuing patches. Patches, at this time, are only said to mitigate any risk.
The Meltdown exploit targets nearly every desktop, laptop and cloud computer. With a few exceptions, Meltdown also impacts every Intel processor since 1995. Spectre, however, affects modern processors and mobile devices, such as smartphones.
