It seems that the computer security company CTS has found 13 different flaws in modern AMD CPU’s. So for thoses that were going to jump off the Intel ship and switch to AMD, it may all be for not.
While I won’t get to far into why CTS released this information with only one days notice to AMD (and giving them no chance to repair the issues). It just highlights the need for much better testing of all CPU’s before being released for general use.
It also shows us all the need for more than just one or two big companies controlling the manufacture of most of the worlds CPU’s. As this forms a security bottleneck, where the failure of these two companies now jeopardises the security for almost everybody using a computer on the planet.
The fixes I predict, will take the same path as Intel’s did over the last few months. Deny a major problem, have O/S and software manufacturers try and patch things and then come out with their own firmware patches to address the issue.
But in the end these companies loose little because when they do come out with new “fixed” chipsets, people will flock to buy up the new, more “secure” CPU’s.
The big losers here are the companies and end users that will have to contend with less secure machines and the slowdowns of said machines once the patches are released.
As always make sure your IT staff or your personal computer technician or shop is up to date on these problems, so that they may protect both you and your company.