Intel blasts 'incorrect' reports over its chip security issues

Vendor giant claims its 'products are the most secure in the world' after accusations of security problems in chips

Intel has hit back at the claims of security concerns over some of its chips by issuing a bullish statement.

Earlier this week, reports emerged of Intel chips being prone to being hacked due to a flaw that went unnoticed for decades. It was believed that it affects all modern Intel CPUs by allowing a hacker the ability to access protected kernel memory data and would require various patches.

However, the chip giant has issued a detailed statement saying that such reports represent an unfair view of the situation.

"Intel and other technology companies have been made aware of new security research describing software analysis methods that, when used for malicious purposes, have the potential to improperly gather sensitive data from computing devices that are operating as designed," said Intel's statement.

"Intel believes these exploits do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data. Recent reports that these exploits are caused by a 'bug' or a 'flaw' and are unique to Intel products are incorrect. Based on the analysis to date, many types of computing devices - with many different vendors' processors and operating systems - are susceptible to these exploits."

The firm stated it is committed to product and customer security and is working closely with many other technology companies, including AMD, ARM Holdings and several operating system vendors, to "develop an industry-wide approach to resolve this issue promptly and constructively".

"Intel has begun providing software and firmware updates to mitigate these exploits. Contrary to some reports, any performance impacts are workload-dependent, and, for the average computer user, should not be significant and will be mitigated over time," the statement continued.

"Intel is committed to the industry best practice of responsible disclosure of potential security issues, which is why Intel and other vendors had planned to disclose this issue next week when more software and firmware updates will be available. However, Intel is making this statement today because of the current inaccurate media reports."

Intel added that users should check with their operating system vendor or system manufacturer and apply any updates as soon as they are available.

"Intel believes its products are the most secure in the world and that, with the support of its partners, the current solutions to this issue provide the best possible security for its customers," the statement concluded.