Hardware vulnerability exposed in majority of computers made in the last decade
TORONTO — Technology experts warn a “really, really serious” security vulnerability could affect the majority of computers made in the last decade, but a fix being rushed to users has a downside: it may slow down your machine.
Tech news website the Register reported a glitch has been identified with Intel processing chips — found in most computers, including Apple’s Macs — that could cause data to become vulnerable to hackers.
While software developers have been covertly working since late last year to address the widespread issue, news of the problem began spreading beyond the development community late Tuesday. Intel’s stock dropped about four per cent on Wednesday while the company’s main competitor AMD saw its stock surge by more than five per cent.
“This is a really, really serious problem,” said Vlado Keselj, a professor of computer science at Dalhousie University.