Meltdown and Spectre Flaws — What They Are and What to Do

There has been a lot of discussion about the Meltdown and Spectre flaws. Here is, perhaps, the most comprehensive discussion you’ll find by Peter Bright over at ars technica. “Meltdown and Spectre: Here’s what Intel, Apple, Microsoft, others are doing about it.”

Here is Apple’s official response: “Apple Says Meltdown Was Patched in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2, with No Measurable Impact to Speed.”

Now that you’re fully briefed, how to respond? OSXDaily has very good advice. “How to Protect Against Meltdown & Spectre Security Flaws.”

One observation here. When flaws like this are found, responsible researchers alert the manufacturers. For example, Microsoft and likely Apple have been working on fixes and mitigations since November, 2017. However, you won’t find these fixes described publicly until the manufacturers have done all they can and rolled out updates.

And so, this is why it’s so important to upgrade your OSes, as OSXDaily advises, very soon after release. If you have an Apple device, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV that cannot run the latest release of macOS, iOS, tvOS, the smart thing to do is trade it in (or decommission it) and purchase new equipment.

It may cost a little out of pocket, but this is the price we have to pay to stay ahead of the bad guys. Failure to stay updated is just asking for trouble.

Next Page: The News Debris For The Week of January 1st. The Net Neutrality fight is just getting started.

Page 2 – News Debris For The Week of January 1st

The Net Neutrality Fight is Just Getting Started

• As I’ve written before, I don’t think the process of undermining Net Neutrality (by the current FCC) is going to survive. The recent ruling is too much of a political and technical hot potato to endure. Countermeasures are already in the works. See: “It ain’t over: Net neutrality advocates are preparing a massive new war against Trump’s FCC.”

Here’s more from Wired on what the Tech giants are planning. “Tech Giants To Join Legal Battle Over Net Neutrality.”

• Microsoft is pretty much done with passwords. People just don’t know how to select, remember and manage sufficiently long passwords to be of value. And so, the emphasis is on biometrics. Here’s a good summary of Microsoft’s initiatives. “Microsoft: It’s time to kill the password.”

• Video compression on the internet is a Big Technical Issue. CNET notes:

For months, powerful companies including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook have been working to shrink online video sizes. But their work just got more important, because Apple has now joined the partnership too.

Read about this new compression protocol, AV1, here: “Apple joins alliance to shrink your online videos.”

• So what’s all the fuss about with the new T2 security chip in the new iMac Pro? Jason Snell at Macworld explains. “The T2 chip makes the iMac Pro the start of a Mac revolution.”

• I normally wouldn’t point to an article like this because it seems near-sighted about Apple’s efforts with the HomePod. And yet, the author makes some obvious points that reflect how customers, without excellent marketing guidance from Apple, may think about the HomePod. Tell me what you think. “Apple HomePod’s High-Priced Road to Nowhere.”

• Finally, Here’s a thought. When AIs attempt to speak as humans, but do so with obvious audible flaws, we form a certain mental picture of the veracity and capability of the AI. We identify it as a mere machine entity.

But what happens when we can no longer tell the difference between an AI’s voice and another human? Will our acceptance change? Our emotions? Our response? It’s a theme right out of science fiction. For more on this, see the first steps in research: “Google’s voice-generating AI is now indistinguishable from humans.”

---

Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the TMO headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holiday weeks.

Share this post