Apple has confirmed what we told you last week. If you have a Mac, iPad, iPhone or Apple TV, it was affected by the Meltdown and Spectre security flaws that were revealed to the public last week. These flaws affect the CPUs in almost all devices from PCs to smartphones to smart home devices.
This vulnerability can allow someone to steal important information from the cache on the chip in your devices. As devices have become faster, chips store more info in that cache in order to anticipate what you’re going to do or need next. If a crook exploited those flaws, he or she could get their hot little hands on a lot of confidential information. Enough to take over your system or empty your bank account.
Apple confirms that they have already issued patches in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2. So make sure your device has those recent updates. Apple will also release an update for Safari running on macOS and iOS in the next few days. They are also working on further updates for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
The company also points out an important tip for all devices. In order to exploit the flaws in the chips, the hacker would need to get some type of malware onto your device to do the job. So, it’s best to make sure that you install apps only from trusted sources. As always, be super-cautious about clicking on links or opening attachments in messages or emails.
To update your Mac computer, Click the Apple icon in the upper-left corner and choose Software Update, then choose Updates.
For your iOS device, make sure you have a WiFi connection. Then go to Settings, select General.
Choose Software update.
I’ll keep you up-to-date as this story develops.