We’ve just discovered that these “predictive memory” capabilities (the official name for them is speculative execution) can be hacked and used against us. In order to make our devices work as fast as we want them to, computer chip manufacturers built processors that can anticipate some of our commands before we make them, based on commands we’ve made before.

They’re not viruses or malware - they are just security gaps we didn’t know we have.

On the other hand, Meltdown and Spectre affect so many devices worldwide, and to such a degree, that when they were first reported, security analysts thought they were fake - and are now calling them “ catastrophic”. There are also not the sort of security defects that can be exploited by just anyone - you’d need to really know what you’re doing. This is because there have been no cyber attacks exploiting these two flaws. On one hand, you may have noticed we keep using the word ‘potentially’. Which devices do they affect? Do they affect me?ĭo you have a PC, laptop, Mac computer, smartphone or tablet running Windows, Linux, Android or iOS? If you want to know more about how they differ, Google Project Zero has a very good, very technical post. Meltdown and Spectre are most often talked about as a duo because they were discovered nearly at the same time. It also screws with web browsers: again, a hacker who knows what he or she’s doing could potentially write malicious JavaScript code, add it to a website, and make your browser reveal your passwords. Spectre affects all processors on the market, not just Intel ones. Meltdown affects every computer, smartphone and tablet with an Intel processor, and it also affects cloud services - potentially, hackers could rent out a virtual server on the shared cloud service and use it to access data from other users. Yes, Meltdown and Spectre are two different flaws. They potentially compromise your device’s memory, leaving the door open for people to get in and steal some seriously sensitive personal data - passwords, pictures, payment details, credit card numbers… Are they different from each other? How do Meltdown and Spectre mess with my devices?

Free instal Spectre