Apple and AMD Sued Over CPU Vulnerabilities

AMD Advanced Micro Devices and Apple are both being sued after it has been revealed that both have CPU vulnerabilities that leave billions of devices open to security attacks. Two attack methods, Meltdown and Spectre, can use the CPU vulnerability to breach the software and allow applications that are malicious to be installed. At this point, every piece of information on a device can be vulnerable including passwords, photos, documents, and emails or even web browsers.

It is important to be aware that any device from a PC to a cell phone or a cloud server can be accessed using these channel of attacks. The vulnerabilities used by these two attack methods are documented to have been around for two decades and can be used against products with a variety of system processors including AMD and Intel.

According to experts, Intel processors are the most exposed to attacks, and they quickly faced a class action lawsuit, but AMD and Apple both soon followed suit. The recent lawsuits aim to provide damages to customers and clients who have already invested in the devices that both companies provide.

AMD Denial

After evidence of Meltdown and Spectre emerged, the business put out a statement claiming that there was nearly a zero chance that their systems would be exposed and were still secure. However, the business later admitted that their systems were affected by the security issue due to two vulnerabilities. They then made it clear that Spectre attacks could impact their CPUs.

Two firms, Pomerantz and Rosen, are leading the lawsuit and allege that AMD made false statements, failed to disclose important information that was relevant to security and failed to tell their customers that the flaw in the CPU does make their systems vulnerable.

At one point it did look like AMD would benefit from the security issue as when they made a claim their tech was not effected stock values rose. However, after they corrected the statement the stock sharply fell in value by nearly one percent.

Anyone who purchased shares in AMD between February 21, 2017, and January 11 208 is now able to join the class action lawsuits. This is due to the fact that during this time AMD allegedly put out false statements about the security issue that ultimately caused a false inflation of stock prices.

Apple Exposure

In Apple’s case, the situation is a little different. A lawsuit against the company claims that the business has been aware of the security issue for years.

Apple did provide a tech software update after the security issue was revealed, but the claim states that plaintiffs would not have purchased the products if they had been aware of the apparent vulnerabilities.

It will be interesting to see how these claims progress over the next few months. Depending on the outcome of the cases it could certainly impact the demand for products from both companies.