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Intel Did Not Tell US Cyber Officials About Chip Flaws Until Made Public (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the real-meltdown dept.

Intel Corp did not inform U.S. cyber security officials of Meltdown and Spectre chip security flaws until they leaked to the public, six months after Alphabet notified the chipmaker of the problems, according to letters sent by tech companies to lawmakers on Thursday. From a report: Current and former U.S. government officials have raised concerns that the government was not informed of the flaws before they became public because the flaws potentially held national security implications. Intel said it did not think the flaws needed to be shared with U.S. authorities as hackers had not exploited the vulnerabilities. Intel did not tell the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, better known as US-CERT, about Meltdown and Spectre until Jan. 3, after reports on them in online technology site The Register had begun to circulate.

4 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Good... by Luthair · · Score: 5, Insightful

    who exactly would trust them with this information? We all know they would have spent the last 6-months exploiting them and attempting to find more variations.

  2. Ban Intel chips for all US government use by technoid_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is the Feds can ban Kaspersky and Huawei for not being secure for US government usage, perhaps Intel chips should be banned for use in government use.

    Oh yeah, Intel is a US company, they can't do that now.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do - Lew of GO magazine
    1. Re:Ban Intel chips for all US government use by Train0987 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem with your argument is that nothing on the component-level is manufactured in the US. Even "domestically-produced" equipment relies on parts manufactured in China, etc.

  3. Stupid Americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The choice between trusting my US gov't, who supposedly answers to the American people, or a global multinational corporate that answers to no one, is no choice to me at all. I choose the US gov't

    It doesn't, the US gov works for the banks and corporations.

    That's why banks get bail outs and CEOs get big bonuses.