> Spectre fools the processor into running speculative operations -- ones it wouldn’t normally perform -- and then uses information about how long the hardware

> Spectre fools the processor into running speculative operations -- ones it wouldn’t normally perform -- and then uses information about how long the hardware takes to retrieve the data to infer the details of that information. After reading several in-depth analysis of this vulnerability and then trying to explain my non-tech friends what this is all is about (disclaimer: I'm just a developer and don't work with assembly, processors or security), I have to admit that it's a pretty awesome executive summary of the issue for a non-technical reader.