How to Protect Yourself from Meltdown and Specter – Features and Tips

You have probably heard about a critical bug that affects processors worldwide and that can be useful for expose your most sensitive information. Computer experts have revealed that there are two problems in the design of processors called Meltdown and Specter.

What is the Meltdown and Specter?

Today’s processors use various paradigms to execute code quickly and efficiently, using speculative execution, out-of-order execution, and jump prediction techniques to improve computer performance. These problems arise because of the way processors operate that trying to operate as they should are deceived to violate the systems.

What does the Meltdown and Specter mean?

When we talk about Meltdown we refer to an error that breaks the isolation between user applications and the Kemel of the operating system, causing a glitch affecting processor ability To stop the creation of malicious code, this problem can be solved by Software. In turn, the Kemel or nucleus is the system that is in charge of communicating the Software with the Hardware.

Let’s talk about Meltdown, it is a time attack that consists of measuring the response time of executing a code, in this case what the attacker does is measure time It takes time for the processor to respond when executing a code.

Regarding the Specter, it’s a processor problem that attacks Intel, AMD, ARM, Smartphone, among others. It should be noted that Specter does not have a simple solution and can take years to be corrected since the corrections that have been created only mitigate its attack in the short term, making it difficult to exploit the computer vulnerability.

Basically, if we have two or more programs open on a computer, each one should work individually with the memory that it works and without any type of link between them. In this case, the operation of the Specter lies in getting information through prying into program memory until sensitive data is found.

How to protect information from Meltdown and Specter

• Update the processor and its components, that is, buy a new one that is free of these problems.
• Slow down the processes you are running.
• You must do content downloads from trusted and recognized websites.
• When browsing the web, we advise you to exercise caution and common sense.
• Update all the programs on your computer that release security updates. Therefore, we recommend you visit the automatic updates section and accept the item.
• Try to update your Firefox browser by installing its most recent version of this tool to access the internet.

• AActivate the isolation options in Chrome. To do this, you must paste the following link “chrome: // flags / # enable-site-per-process” in the address bar and activate the option.
• Periodically review the updates available for your equipment.
• Apply patches security to increase protection.
• Practice safe computing, that is, avoid downloading content from unreputable pages.
• Remove the antivirus you have and activate Windows Defender.
• Install the latest version of the operating system on your computer.

Who are those affected by Meldown and specter?

Meldown and specter are flaws in the CPU architecture and the structure of the central processing units; On the one hand, Meldown affects all Intel processors, on the other Specter affects all processors including Intel, AMD and ARM. In the same way, it affects operating systems and mobile systems, the failure allows the attacker to access to protected memory areas such as SSL keys or keys.

The big problem with these vulnerabilities is that they are directly related to the hardware of the processors. Therefore, they cannot be fix with a Software update of the best programs. However, with the advancement of this news, a myriad of mitigation alternatives have been taken in the face of both security flaws.