14 DAY TRIAL // Intel has decided to integrate a new technology in its processor called Intel Security Essentials, directly into the hardware, in direct response to the Spectre and Meltdown flaws identified in a number CPUs.
The fallout from the Spectre and Meltdown security flaws identified numerous processors, including Intel and AMD, had a much greater impact than people might realize. Because the issues were at the hardware level, it meant that fixing them with a patch was only a band-aid.
A more permanent solution was needed, and Intel promised that their next generation of CPUs wouldn’t inherit this flaw. It meant that changes have to be done during the building process, but the company wants to do more than just fix a defect. They want to prevent other similar issues from cropping up.
Built-in protection
Intel is always working on a new generation of processors, so it’s not all that surprising that the next one won’t be susceptible to Meltdown and Spectre. On the other hand, not having to deal with other similar problems in the future is a much better solution. While they can’t know beforehand if other hardware issues lurk in the silicon wafers, they can make sure they have some protection in place.
The company is saying that “we are also launching Intel Security Essentials, which will ensure a consistent set of critical root-of-trust hardware security capabilities across Intel® Core™, Intel Xeon and Intel Atom® processors. These capabilities are platform integrity technologies for secure boot, hardware protections (for data, keys and other digital assets), accelerated cryptography and trusted execution enclaves to protect applications at runtime.”
The new technology should provide better security posture of computing, lower costs, and minimize the impact of security on performance. This last part is the important one because it also means that other bugs won’t have a significant effect on performance when patched, and that’s pretty much what everyone wants.