Earlier this month, security engineers realized there were two huge vulnerabilities that had been overlooked for years; Meltdown and Spectre are security flaws that affect almost every intel processor released in the past two decades. These vulnerabilities could allow hackers to access passwords, encryption keys, and other private information from open applications.
Processor manufacturers like Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and ARM are rapidly working with hardware manufacturers to produce patches to remediate the issue, however, the patches have created new problems. Users experienced sporadic reboots, systems crashes, and performance and speed were compromised. Most of the patches are causing more problems than they are fixing.
To secure our client computers against this vulnerability or any problematic patches, we are delaying the patching of any workstations until we have properly vetted vendor solutions. The downfalls of a non-vetted patch can be quite severe. Our goal is to verify that there will be no inadvertent slowdown or conflicts that come about as a result of remediation.
If you have any questions about how BTP’s TeraCare Platform can monitor these patches for your business network, please email sales@btp.net with “Meltdown and Spectre” in the subject line.
