Intel is now recalling its most recent patches for the controversial central processing unit (CPU) security flaw and is advising users and its partners not to apply the said updates due to how detrimental they are to PCs.
These patches will supposedly address the CPU security issues called Spectre and Meltdown, and while the patches will protect systems from potential hackers, the tradeoff seems to be a more than just a small performance decrease. Evidence points to discoveries that the updates against Spectre and Meltdown resulted in a lot of problems in terms of stability and not just performance.
Navin Shenoy, the general manager for Intel's data center group, has stated that the patches "may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior." The situation has somehow become worse despite the quick fixes which Intel rolled out in response to the recent Meltdown and Spectre blunders.
The issues which came with the patches, particularly for Spectre, has been causing reported reboot issues for Intel CPUs. This is why Intel is urging its partners to hold off the patch implementation until it can address fix the update, or update the fix, in this case. It is not yet clear what new problems the next fix for Spectre and Meltdown may bring, so Intel users will have to decide between security or performance and stability, which is quite a dilemma given how Intel's reputation and promise for the latter.
Needless to say, Intel's handling of Meltdown and Spectre has been as blunderous as the discovery of the said CPU flaws and has even damaged their reputation further, so much so that some websites are even suggesting that users wait for the dust to settle before applying any patch that Intel has rolled out these past few weeks.
In the meantime, Intel users should just make sure to practice safe security measures for their PCs which include having an antivirus and steering clear from suspicious websites and downloads or just disconnecting their computers from the internet.
