Was Your Device Affected by the Meltdown or Spectre Vulnerability?

The Spectre and Meltdown bugs, first discovered in late 2017, may expose consumers’ private information to potential hacking risk. A class action lawsuit investigation is looking for residents of Michigan and other states who were affected by the Meltdown or Spectre vulnerability issues, or the subsequent Intel patch.

Intel processor chips are used in a vast swath of devices, including computers, smartphones, and servers. Unfortunately, these Intel chips have been discovered to have major security flaws.

The security issues, which have been given the names “Spectre” and “Meltdown,” can leave your data extremely vulnerable. Indeed, this Spectre vulnerability can allow hackers to steal data from the memory of running apps. Apps that are often running in the background include emails, browsers, documents, photos, and even password managers, meaning that very sensitive information may be at risk.

If you are a Michigan resident and have purchased an Intel-based processor, computer, or server sometime in the past six years, and were affected by the Meltdown or Spectre vulnerability issue, or the patch meant to fix it, you may be able to join a class action lawsuit investigation.

The Intel Chip Spectre Vulnerability Flaw

Two significant flaws have been discovered in the Intel chip: The Meltdown issue and the Spectre vulnerability. These issues were first discovered in late 2017, and were publicized in early 2018. Essentially, these vulnerabilities make it so that software programs can access and steal data currently running on a computer. The flaws are a particular risk because they are invisible to antivirus software and system logs. These issues can affect not just computers, but mobile devices and even the cloud.

The Issue with the Intel Patch

In response to the Spectre vulnerability issue, Intel released a patch intending to fix the security flaw on Jan. 18, 2018. However, consumers claim that the patch itself has harmed their devices, decreasing their speed and performance. Indeed, consumers claim that their devices slowed by as much as 30 percent after they installed the Intel patch. For some, this also caused repeated and random device shutdowns and reboots.

On Jan. 22, a mere four days after the patch was released, Intel told users to stop applying the patch, “as they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior.”

Because Intel chips are used in so many systems, the Spectre vulnerability and Meltdown risk affect countless operating systems and devices made in the last 20 years.

Consumers have filed a number of class action lawsuits, alleging that they were harmed by the decreased performance and speed, as well as additional financial expense for a product that didn’t work as intended, and cost of upgrading or replacing devices, among others.

If you are a Michigan resident and your computer, server, or processor with an Intel chip has been affected by the Spectre vulnerability, Meltdown bug, or the Intel patch, you may be able to join a class action lawsuit investigation.

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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