The world's top chipmaker Intel said on Friday that it will soon release patches to prevent computer systems with Intel chips from the attack of two new vulnerabilities, Meltdown and Spectre, which might cause serious net security risks.
Those two vulnerabilities will enable hacker access to sensitive information such as passwords on computers, servers and smartphones, according to media reports.
"By the end of next week, Intel will release patches that can cover more than 90 percent of the processors that have been launched by the company in the past five years," the company said in a statement it sent to the Global Times on Friday.
Influence of the two bugs on Intel chips will be the greatest, Shanghai's cyberspace regulator said on Friday. It also noted that other mainstream processor chips and operation systems like Advanced RISC Machines chips, Windows and Android systems, will be affected.
According to Intel, the new updates will have little influence on normal computer users. But for some special computers, the update will initially greatly affect their operations, but such influence can be reduced later with optimization.
In a separate statement Intel sent to the Global Times on Friday, the company also noted that the two aforementioned vulnerabilities will not lead to attacks that can damage, change or delete computer data.
But Xiang Ligang, chief executive of telecom industry website cctime.com, told the Global Times on Friday the fact that Intel chips were hit most by the bugs shows "a design flaw of Intel's chip architecture."
"Unlike operating systems which are often exposed to security loopholes, the chip problem is a rarity which can be patched with software updates," he said, noting, however, the vulnerability of Intel chips that has the company hitting the security flaw brick wall would still augur ill for the chipmaker.
Share prices of Intel slipped 1.83 percent to $44.43 per share as of press time.
The cyberspace affairs office in Shanghai noted that the China National Vulnerability Database has already included the two flaws in its list of vulnerabilities.
The office also urged the city's key information infrastructure and management authorities to start network security emergency plans and take measures to cope with the situation.
