Intel is in another controversial spotlight right now, as the company has been alleged to have informed China first regarding the central processing unit (CPU) security flaw before it did the US.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal state that the CPU manufacturing giant gave the heads up to Chinese cloud companies about Spectre and Meltdown, the two recently discovered and severe CPU security bugs. This could mean that a lot of Chinese enterprises and tech giants such as Lenovo and Alibaba have already learned of the security blunder and prepared for them even before the rest of the world did, giving them an advantage.
It is not known and was not included in the report when Intel allegedly warned China of the bugs before the actual discovery of Meltdown and Spectre. The said reports came from Wall Street Journal's anonymous sources with apparent ties to the Chinese companies or government.
Intel initially planned to reveal the security flaw back on Jan. 9 but had to make it earlier since the story and discovery blew up faster than expected. There was also a leaked memo from Intel which may have indicated that they have informed China of Spectre and Meltdown as early as Nov. 29 last year based on a non-disclosure agreement with an unknown original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
It can then be recalled that as early as Jan. 3, Lenovo was quite quick with its assurance statements that it had been working on the issue ahead of the date along with other partners, presumably other Chinese manufacturers. Alibaba, China's top provider of cloud services, on the other hand, points out that these said accusations were baseless and speculative.
Meanwhile, this has much of the US politicians and homeland security elements worried, as they could have used the same valuable information that Intel supposedly disclosed to China first. If proven true, this might be troublesome and disturbing not only for Intel but also for the rest of the US.
