Google: Serious security gaps in almost all mobile and PCs - The dangers

Alarm has been in the world of technology.

Google researchers, in collaboration with other cyber security experts, said they identified two major safety gaps in virtually all processors used on computers, mobile phones, tablets, and other electronic devices.

The two Meltdown and Specter gaps that could exploit hackers (if they have not already done so) are chips from the most famous manufacturing companies: Intel, AMD and ARD.

Hackers could gain access to device memory, as well as sensitive ones such as passwords.

Google has revealed that the problem had been known to manufacturers since the summer of 2017. But it has just leaked out from anonymous developers and became more widely known (initially through the The Register website) before unfortunately there is a complete restoration of cyber-security gaps, which is a challenge for all hackers.

Companies, according to Reuters, have claimed that the problem is not related to hardware design errors and that it is dealt with as users install new security updates on the software (operating system) of their devices.

They also said they were hurrying to fix "backpacks". Some software upgrades will be available over the next few days, said Intel, which supplies 80 percent of personal desktop PCs worldwide and 90 percent of laptops.

It remains unknown whether and how many hackers have taken advantage of these gaps, although the BBC's National Center for Cyber-Security, according to BBC, believes that this has not happened yet.

Initially, it was the impression that the problem was only about Intel, but the company clarified that security gaps exist in the chips of its competitors.

The security blob named Meltdown is specifically for Intel, while the second, called Specter, is about Intel, ARM and ARD chips.

ARM said it has already prepared "patches" that it sent to smartphone makers it supplies with a chip.

AMD claimed that "its products are almost zero risk at the moment". Microsoft, using an Intel chip, said it would release security updates Thursday, considering that there have been no cybercrime cases so far.

Apple is also working on similar upgrades for its products.

Google has reported that Android devices with the latest security updates in their operating system are protected and has assured that Gmail is safe and will soon release security updates for Chrome users and Chromebooks.

Researcher Daniel Gross of the Austrian Graz University of Technology, one of Meltdown's founders, along with Google analyst Jan Horn, said that "this is probably the worst problem in a central processing unit that has ever been found."

But he found that it could be solved with the appropriate "patch" in the software. Intel has denied the worries that have been released that the patch will make up 30% of its chips slower.

On the other hand, according to the New York Times, the wider Specter problem, which concerns all the chips, is considered more difficult to be "exploited" by hackers, but it is more difficult to solve.

It will probably need to re-design the chips, so Spectre may prove to be a bigger problem in the long run, until a new generation of processors is produced.