North Carolina Consumers May Have Claims over Intel Spectre and Meltdown Flaws

Lawyers are investigating claims from North Carolina consumers who say they were negatively affected in Intel’s Spectre and Meltdown processor attacks, leaving their information vulnerable to theft by hackers. Additionally, consumers claim that the patches Intel released to fix the processors made matters worse, severely decreasing the speeds of their devices.

If you purchased a server, smartphone, or computer part in the last six years that contained an Intel processor and if you installed a patch to protect your device from the Spectre and Meltdown bugs, you may have a legal claim.

Spectre and Meltdown Flaws, and Faulty Patches

Experts have reportedly found serious security flaws in Intel processors that may have left the processors’ data and memory vulnerable to theft by hackers. Experts say that hackers can access the memory from apps that are currently running and being used.

Two main flaws were detected and were named “Meltdown” and “Specter.” The two problems affected the hardware itself, and affected the kernel memory — the memory that is used for the computer or device’s operating system. This memory is accessible to the computer’s other software programs.

Reportedly, information that has been compromised included important personal information from the users of the computers with Intel processors or “chips,” including email addresses, browser information, photos, documents, and password management systems and apps.

Unfortunately, these security problems are extensive, and they affect almost every processor (and the devices in which they are installed) that Intel has made in the last 20 years. The affected devices include computers, phones, cloud computing systems.

In an attempt to remedy the problems and to provide consumers with some security, Intel reportedly released a software “patch” that was intended to fix the processors. However, consumers who installed the patch discovered that the patch caused their devices to slow down significantly and caused them to reboot repeatedly and at random. Allegedly, devices with the patch slowed down as much as 30 percent.

In response, on Jan. 22, 2018, Intel advised the public and manufacturers to stop installing the patches, stating that they were faulty. Allegedly, the company is in the processes of investigating the problems in the patch.

Spectre and Meltdown Lawsuits

Now, lawyers are looking for consumers in North Carolina who were negatively affected by the Spectre and Meltdown security problems or by the faulty patch intended to correct the problem.

Consumers and corporations have already begun to file class action lawsuits in an attempt to hold Intel accountable for the damage done by the data breach and the problems caused to devices. Consumers are claiming that they were injured in the following ways:

• paying for a faulty product
• experiencing a decrease in speed and performance because of the faulty patch
• incurring higher than necessary energy costs because of the poor performance of their devices
• paying to replace or upgrade the processors in their device, or their device as a whole

If you live in North Carolina and purchased a device with an Intel processor in North Carolina in the last six years, and experienced difficulties with your processor or the patch used to fix the Spectre and Meltdown hacks, you may have a legal claim and may be eligible to join an Intel processor lawsuit.

Join a Free Intel Meltdown and Spectre Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you or your company were negatively affected by the Intel Meltdown and Spectre defects, including suffering damages caused by installing the Intel software patch, you may have a legal claim.

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