Intel vows to 'defend itself rigorously' as lawsuits fly in

Vendor facing backlash over Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities

Intel is facing 32 lawsuits as the fallout from the Spectre and Meltdown security vulnerabilities continues.

The flaws in Intel's chips were revealed at the start of the year and are said to affect almost all modern computers. Since then, the world's largest vendors have been scrambling to release patches, with varying degrees of success.

Intel has now revealed the damage in a regulatory filing, with the vendor facing 30 customer class-action lawsuits and two securities class-action lawsuits.

The customers claim to have been harmed by Intel's handling of the security vulnerabilities. Google informed Intel of the flaws in June 2017, but the information was not publicly reported until 3 January this year.

The two securities lawsuits claim that Intel violated securities laws by not disclosing the vulnerabilities sooner.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has been criticised for offloading $25m (£18.5m) of Intel shares before the news broke.

Intel said: "We dispute the claims described and intend to defend the lawsuits vigorously.

"Given the procedural posture and the nature of these cases, including that the proceedings are in the early stages, that alleged damages have not been specified, that uncertainty exists as to the likelihood of a class or classes being certified or the ultimate size of any class or classes if certified, and that there are significant factual and legal issues to be resolved, we are unable to make a reasonable estimate of the potential loss or range of losses, if any, that might arise from these matters."

Intel is also facing action from three shareholders who claim that members of the board should have informed shareholders of the issues sooner.