Little basic hacks

Earlier we talked about whether you are safe from Meltdown and Spectre flaws . Now it's time that you know what exactly are these flaws, are both of them Intel specific or is there more and how powerful are they in affecting your PC. What Exactly Are Meltdown and Spectre? Spectre is nothing less than a fundamental design flaw that exists in every CPU available in the market—be it AMD, ARM or Intel. There is presently no software fix, and it will likely require a complete hardware redesign for CPUs across the board—though thankfully it is fairly difficult to exploit, as far as security researchers have to say. It’s possible to protect against specific Spectre attacks, and developers are working on it, but seriously, the best possible solution will be a complete CPU hardware redesign for all future chips. Meltdown basically worsens Spectre by making the core underlying flaw much easier to exploit. It’s essentially an additional flaw that affects all Intel processors made...

Even if you have installed patches from Windows Update, your PC may not be completely safe against CPU flaws like  Meltdown and Spectre . Here’s how you can check if you’re fully protected, and what to do if you aren’t. For a complete protection against Meltdown and Spectre, you’ll need to install a  UEFI or BIOS  update from your PC’s manufacturer as well as the various software patches. These UEFI updates contain new Intel processor microcode that adds additional protection against these attacks. Unfortunately, you don't just get these via a conventional Windows Update—unless you’re using a Microsoft Surface device—so they must be downloaded from your manufacturer’s website and installed manually. How to Check if Your PC Is Really Protected Microsoft has made available a  PowerShell script  that will quickly tell you whether your PC is protected or not. The PowerShell can be easily run by using the command line. If you’re a Windows 7 user, you will...