Intel responds to security research findings

Intel and other technology companies have been made aware of new security research describing software analysis methods that, when used for malicious purposes, have the potential to improperly gather sensitive data from computing devices that are operating as designed. Intel believes these exploits do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data.

Recent reports that these exploits (Meltdown and Spectre) are caused by a “bug” and are unique to Intel® products are incorrect. Based on the analysis to date, many types of computing devices—with many different vendors’ processors and operating systems—are susceptible to these exploits.

Intel is committed to product and customer security and is working closely with many other technology companies, including AMD*, ARM Holdings* and several operating-system vendors, to develop an industry-wide approach to resolve this issue promptly and constructively. Intel has begun providing software and firmware updates to mitigate these exploits. The performance impact of these updates is highly workload-dependent and will vary depending on the microprocessor, platform type (client or server), configuration and mitigation technique. Intel believes that for the average computer user, the performance impact should not be significant, although some workloads may see a noticeable impact on performance.

Intel is committed to the industry best practice of responsible disclosure of potential security issues, which is why Intel and other vendors had planned to disclose this issue a week later when more software and firmware updates would be available. However, Intel is making this statement today because of the current inaccurate media reports.

Check with your operating-system vendor or system manufacturer and apply any available updates as soon as they are available. Following good security practices that protect against malware in general will also help protect against possible exploitation until updates can be applied.

Intel believes its products are the most secure in the world and that, with the support of its partners, the current solutions to this issue provide the best possible security for its customers.

www.intel.co.uk