I’ve been trying to read up on this subject, but man the information out there can get overwhelming fast. I’m more of a software guy, hardware is not my expertise.
So please explain in easy to understand terms:
What should I do about these flaws I mentioned? I’m on an Intel ASUS laptop.
Also, I want to buy another laptop at the end of the year. Should any of this affect my buying decisions? Is every computer affected?
In: Technology
You can’t do anything about them, because you can’t make your own CPU chips. (This is a practical limitation, there isn’t any physics preventing you from making a CPU chip, but it’s super difficult and expensive.) You cannot buy a laptop that’s immune to the discovery of new flaws like these, though a new laptop design is likely to include protections against the ones that have been discovered.
To avoid the effects: A) keep evildoers from having physical access to your laptop; B) Only run programs that come from reliable sources (aka not the Internet unless you validate the binaries); C) Don’t run scripting languages in your web browser. It would also be a good idea not to be a terrorist or so super-rich that you’re a target for well-resourced evildoers.
The cool things about these ways of avoiding malware, it works on a large spectrum of malware tactics, not just the chip exploiting ones.
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