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Vox Media website theverge.com reports that Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA) wants answers about the recent computer chip chaos.
Congress is starting to ask hard questions about the fallout from the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. Today, Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA) sent a letter [(pdf)] requesting a briefing from Intel, AMD, and ARM about the vulnerabilities’ impact on consumers.
[...] The two vulnerabilities are “glaring warning signs that we must take cybersecurity more seriously,” McNerney argues in the letter. “Should the vulnerabilities be exploited, the effects on consumers’ privacy and our nation’s economy and security would be absolutely devastating.”
Privately disclosed to chipmakers in June of 2016, the Meltdown and Spectre bugs became public after a haphazard series of leaks earlier this month. In the aftermath, there have been significant patching problems, including an AMD patch that briefly prevented Windows computers from booting up. Intel in particular has come under fire for inconsistent statements about the impact of the bugs, and currently faces a string of proposed class-action lawsuits relating to the bugs.
Meltdown can be fixed through a relatively straightforward operating-system level patch, but Spectre has proven more difficult, and there have been significant patching problems in the aftermath. The most promising news has been Google’s Retpoline approach, which the company says can protect against the trickiest Spectre variant with little negative performance impact.
The letter calls on the CEOs of Intel, AMD, and ARM to answer (among other things) when they learned about these problems and what they are doing about it.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Wednesday January 17 2018, @11:07PM (1 child)
Don't know about licensing of dentists. However licensing of coders will not have any effect simply because they are not the deciding force in any project. If they say "stop, we must rewrite the existing code from PHP to Forth to improve safety" they will be asked to do what they are told or quit.
Most software is designed for speed, cost and functionality. Optimizations like security are left for later (a.k.a. never.) You cannot do that when you design a bridge. The professional engineer has the law on his side, the management has no power to force the engineer to produce a defective construction. But consequences of a defective, insecure code are next to zero - just issue a patch if you are generous. The typical response is to upgrade to the new version. It might have a different set of bugs.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday January 17 2018, @11:37PM
Yes, current software age is very similar to times when cold was treated by a mixture of cocaine and morphine. It is very effective - costs and otherwise - and enjoyable. Unfortunately, those times are gone. Similarly "free" approach to software development will be gone one day.
BTW, when Congress says "fix it or we will" I suspect it's what they mean. I also suspect it is the main reason why say Google calls his workers engineers and develops certification programs. When the shit hits the fan Google wants to be prepared.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.