Techmeme
January 4, 2018, 11:10 AM

Top News

Google Online Security Blog:
Google's Project Zero says it discovered three variants of CPU attack, affecting AMD, ARM, and Intel; Android devices with latest security update are safe  —  Last year, Google's Project Zero team discovered serious security flaws caused by “speculative execution,” a technique used by most modern processors …
Meltdown and Spectre:
Official webpage for the Meltdown and Spectre CPU vulnerabilities, which has links to research papers and an FAQ  —  Bugs in modern computers leak passwords and sensitive data.  Meltdown and Spectre exploit critical vulnerabilities in modern processors.  These hardware bugs allow programs …
Spectreattack.com:
Researchers wrote a Spectre attack in JavaScript that violates browser sandboxing and reads data from the address space of the browser process running it  —  Modern processors use branch prediction and speculative execution to maximize performance.  For example, if the destination …
New York Times:
Researchers say there is no known fix for Spectre CPU flaw; Meltdown flaw affects almost all Intel CPUs, requires software patch that could cause slowness  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Computer security experts have discovered two major security flaws in the microprocessors inside nearly all of the world's computers.
Troy Wolverton / Business Insider:
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sold ~$24M of stock in Nov. and now owns 250K shares, the minimum he's required to hold; Intel was informed about chip flaws in June  —  - Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sold off $24 million worth of stock and options in the company in late November.
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
Researchers discover vulnerabilities, dubbed Meltdown and Spectre, that let hackers steal data from running apps on most Intel chips, some ARM and AMD chips  —  Most Intel processors and some ARM chips are confirmed to be vulnerable, putting billions of devices at risk of attacks.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Thomas Fox-Brewster / Forbes:
Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:
White House says it has banned guests and employees from using personal cell phones at work, will only allow use of government-issued devices  —  The White House is going to start barring employees from using their personal cellphones at work, press secretary Sarah Sanders said early Thursday.
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
Samsung unveils Exynos 9 Series 9810 processor, likely to be used in upcoming Galaxy S9, and teases iPhone X-like features including face detection using AI  —  Starting off the new year by introducing its latest custom smartphone processor, Samsung has revealed some of what we might expect from its next Galaxy S flagship.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
AT&T announces plans to start rolling out a true 5G network in 12 cities by the end of 2018  —  AT&T has announced plans to roll out a true 5G network in a dozen markets in accordance with the 3GPP's recently released 5G NR (new radio) guidelines by the end of 2018.
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed:
Reports suggest India's Aadhaar national ID database was breached, exposing information of ~1.2B Indians and allowing creation of admin accounts by other admins  —  A local Indian newspaper was able to access the private data of more than a billion Indians for just $8.
New York Times:
How Nvidia researchers generated pictures of faces that appear to be real but aren't by analyzing photos of celebrities and detecting patterns  —  To create the final image in this set, the system generated 10 million revisions over 18 days.  —  The woman in the photo seems familiar.
Reuters:
Sources: Google exploring sale of US restaurant review guide Zagat which it bought for $151M in 2011  —  (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google is exploring a potential sale of Zagat, the U.S. restaurant review guide which the search giant bought for $151 million in 2011, people familiar with the matter said.
Joe Shields / AnandTech:

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
In-depth bounce reports now in ZeptoMail  —  The ultimate aim of any email sender is to deliver emails to the right recipient's inbox—but even when taking measures to ensure successful delivery, bounces still occur.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'The Ratchet of Flippancy', With Craig Mod
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Techmeme Ride Home:
ChatGPT Just Wants To Please
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View:
The difference between early and late AI adopters
Azeem Azhar explores how AI and exponential technologies are shaping our future.
Subscribe to Azeem Azhar's Exponential View.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Tariffs, Trump, TikTok: What's going to happen to ads in 2025?
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Spotlight On:
*S3 Feature* Transcend's Kate Parker on putting data back into the hands of users in an AI-driven world
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Cliff Sosin - Investing in Carvana
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:10 AM ET, January 4, 2018.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Washington Post: