Intel processors found a critical vulnerability: who can suffer and what to do

- What happened
On January 3, 2018, experts told about the vulnerability in Intel processors released in the last 20 years. An error in the design of the chips can allow attackers to gain access to the protected part of the kernel's memory and the logins, passwords and other files stored there.

- How it works

Vulnerability reveals two types of attacks: Meltdown ("Crash") and Specter ("Ghost"). Meltdown - a problem that primarily threatens the cloud services, said The New York Times.

- Who is vulnerable to attack
About the problems with security announced the manufacturer of Intel chips, the company also said that there are similar problems with other manufacturers. In the statements of Intel and Microsoft mentioned vulnerabilities in the chips of AMD and ARM, but in AMD their involvement in the problem is denied.

- What will happen with Intel
Against the background of news about vulnerabilities in the company's chip, the value of Intel's shares fell by 3%. According to Business Insider, in November 2017 the head of the company Bryan Krzhanich sold a stake in the company worth about $ 24 million.

- What to do
Companies commenting on the situation advise users to install updates and promise that customers will not notice a decrease in the performance of their devices.

According to Bloomberg, experts have not yet managed to fix any attacks related to Meltdown and Specter.