How to Protect Your Devices From Computer-Chip Flaws

By Marc Saltzman   Published January 08, 2018

While technology is supposed to make our life easier — online shopping and banking, hailing an Uber with the tap of a screen, or video chatting with the kids and grandkids — we’re sometimes

reminded there are downsides to the Information Age.

Recent news that a security flaw in the processing chips affecting nearly all of the computer devices and gadgets most of us use daily was a reminder of our vulnerability to hackers who

could steal information, including passwords and other sensitive data.

In a blog post published on Jan. 3, a Google security team announced discovery of two related flaws — they called them Meltdown and Spectre — affecting almost all modern-day CPUs (central

processing units), including those from Intel, Arm and AMD, and all operating systems and devices running them.

The discovery meant they found that virtually all smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers — whether they’re running Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS (iPhone, iPad) — are

at risk.

Since then, all the major chipmakers have issued updates to many of their CPUs, whether for our consumer devices or corporate-server computers. Intel says it has fixed about 90 percent of

its CPUs from the last five years, while AMD and Arm also are rolling out updates (even though both claim not all their processors were affected).

Operating systems also are being updated. Google — which owns Android, the world’s most popular smartphone operating system — says it already has applied updates. Computers that run Google

Chrome OS (Chromebooks) also have been fixed.