Windows 10: Intel Advancing Security at the Silicon Level

Brink · Mar 14, 2018

Hardware-based Protection Coming to Data Center and PC Products Later this Year

In addressing the vulnerabilities reported by Google Project Zero earlier this year, Intel and the technology industry have faced a significant challenge. Thousands of people across the industry have worked tirelessly to make sure we delivered on our collective priority: protecting customers and their data. I am humbled and thankful for the commitment and effort shown by so many people around the globe. And, I am reassured that when the need is great, companies – and even competitors – will work together to address that need.

But there is still work to do. The security landscape is constantly evolving and we know that there will always be new threats. This was the impetus for the Security-First Pledge I penned in January. Intel has a long history of focusing on security, and now, more than ever, we are committed to the principles I outlined in that pledge: customer-first urgency, transparent and timely communications, and ongoing security assurance.

More: Security Exploits and Intel Products (Press Kit) | Security Research Findings (Intel.com)

Today, I want to provide several updates that show continued progress to fulfill that pledge. First, we have now released microcode updates for 100 percent of Intel products launched in the past five years that require protection against the side-channel method vulnerabilities discovered by Google. As part of this, I want to recognize and express my appreciation to all of the industry partners who worked closely with us to develop and test these updates, and make sure they were ready for production.

With these updates now available, I encourage everyone to make sure they are always keeping their systems up-to-date. It’s one of the easiest ways to stay protected. I also want to take the opportunity to share more details of what we are doing at the hardware level to protect against these vulnerabilities in the future. This was something I committed to during our most recent earnings call.

While Variant 1 will continue to be addressed via software mitigations, we are making changes to our hardware design to further address the other two. We have redesigned parts of the processor to introduce new levels of protection through partitioning that will protect against both Variants 2 and 3. Think of this partitioning as additional “protective walls” between applications and user privilege levels to create an obstacle for bad actors.

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These changes will begin with our next-generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (code-named Cascade Lake) as well as 8th Generation Intel® Core™ processors expected to ship in the second half of 2018. As we bring these new products to market, ensuring that they deliver the performance improvements people expect from us is critical. Our goal is to offer not only the best performance, but also the best secure performance.

But again, our work is not done. This is not a singular event; it is a long-term commitment. One that we take very seriously. Customer-first urgency, transparent and timely communications, and ongoing security assurance. This is our pledge and it’s what you can count on from me, and from all of Intel.

Brian Krzanich,
Chief executive officer of Intel Corporation
Click to expand...

Source: https://newsroom.intel.com/editorial...silicon-level/

:)

michacarr50 · Mar 14, 2018

Latest Windows 10 cumulative update

Hi Rob,

Thank you for the information about AMD. I always thought it was Intel's. I'll

deal with the messages because I don't want to reduce my security level.

Mike

'RickT · Mar 14, 2018

Windows 10 freezes randomly but frequently and requires hard reset

Have you tried the latest Intel drivers, from Intel ? I think there's drivers specific to the Anniversary Update.

As far as disallowing hardware acceleration is concerned, you could try to set that in Windows instead of your browsers. Settings>System>Display>Advanced>Troubleshooting (or something like that: I haven't got it on my machine) goes to a slider bar to set
different levels of hardware acceleration.

Ground Sloth · Mar 14, 2018

Is Intel saying that people should buy new computers later this year because they'll be better protected? And what if a Variant 4 is discovered? Microsoft seems to fully expect that new exploits involving speculative execution will be discovered.

I know I'm in the extreme minority, but I wish Intel had not abandoned IA-64.

Windows 10: Intel Advancing Security at the Silicon Level

Intel Advancing Security at the Silicon Level

Intel Advancing Security at the Silicon Level

Intel Advancing Security at the Silicon Level

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