4 ms·

Without taking Intel's side there's another perspective. Meltdown/Spectre are severe and perhaps even unprecedented security problems but if you put them in th

Without taking Intel's side there's another perspective. Meltdown/Spectre are severe and perhaps even unprecedented security problems but if you put them in the overall security context there are many other issues that outrank them at least from the perspective of non-technical users. 1. A majority of Americans using credit had their private data compromised in the 2017 Equifax breach. [0] That's just one of what are now countless breaches of data. The damage from Meltdown/Spectre is somewhat theoretical at this point whereas the data breaches have led to real fraud against countless individuals and business. 2. Even recent OS versions have large numbers of security bugs--see Greg Kroah-Hartmann's comments on obsolete kernels for specific Linux examples. [1] 3. State actors ranging from the US to North Korea have well-funded operations to steal or corrupt data. If they really want your data they will probably get it even if Meltdown/Spectre had not been discovered. Finally it's only fair to point out that some of the claims of Intel being disingenuous on the august Hacker News forum [2] turned out to be overblown--other processors are subject to some of the same problems and many users will not notice much difference in the patched systems. [0] https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breac... [1] http://kroah.com/log/blog/2018/01/06/meltdown-status/ http://kroah.com/log/blog/2018/01/06/meltdown-status/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16064545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16064545

gaius 9y ago
State actors ranging from the US to North Korea No-one really believes that the Norks with their steam-powered computers are hacking anything. Propaganda cuts both ways.
- Fnoord 9y ago
  I was quite in the know in the 2nd hand PC market in the beginning of the '00s because one of the projects was I involved in was to get people who couldn't afford computer & internet access to our 2nd hand computer network, including with internet access. We were running practically on donated hardware (and ran on 100% free software), except for our main internal and public server which were purchased. It was called, translated, an "internet free place" because the word "[internet] pub" was protected by law. I suppose nowadays it'd be called a hackerspace of some kind but that word didn't exist back then. Now, if you'd seen the stuff which was thrown away... perfectly working computers from a few years old really. There were projects to get these to 2nd and 3rd world countries as well (though by other organisations than ours, since we were local to our city). With that in mind, and assuming computer hardware is still being tossed away after such short times of usage (I'd wager PC hardware is used more, but mobile phones are still being tossed like candy paper), I wonder if any IBM clones ever reached North Korean soil. If North Korea speculated on Bitcoins, which they supposedly did (with which computers?), they got some nice income out of that as well. Or would you recon this is all done outside of NK borders e.g. by spies?
- ionised 9y ago
  You don't believe North Korea can procure modern computers?
  - gaius 9y ago
    I’m not saying what I believe but what the general public believes. Our leaders simultaneously tell us that the Norks are a failed state and are technically advanced enough to defeat the West in cyberwarfare. They can’t both be true.

gaius 9y ago

State actors ranging from the US to North Korea No-one really believes that the Norks with their steam-powered computers are hacking anything. Propaganda cuts both ways.

Fnoord 9y ago
I was quite in the know in the 2nd hand PC market in the beginning of the '00s because one of the projects was I involved in was to get people who couldn't afford computer & internet access to our 2nd hand computer network, including with internet access. We were running practically on donated hardware (and ran on 100% free software), except for our main internal and public server which were purchased. It was called, translated, an "internet free place" because the word "[internet] pub" was protected by law. I suppose nowadays it'd be called a hackerspace of some kind but that word didn't exist back then. Now, if you'd seen the stuff which was thrown away... perfectly working computers from a few years old really. There were projects to get these to 2nd and 3rd world countries as well (though by other organisations than ours, since we were local to our city). With that in mind, and assuming computer hardware is still being tossed away after such short times of usage (I'd wager PC hardware is used more, but mobile phones are still being tossed like candy paper), I wonder if any IBM clones ever reached North Korean soil. If North Korea speculated on Bitcoins, which they supposedly did (with which computers?), they got some nice income out of that as well. Or would you recon this is all done outside of NK borders e.g. by spies?
ionised 9y ago
You don't believe North Korea can procure modern computers?
- gaius 9y ago
  I’m not saying what I believe but what the general public believes. Our leaders simultaneously tell us that the Norks are a failed state and are technically advanced enough to defeat the West in cyberwarfare. They can’t both be true.