Intel Asks Customers To Stop Updating Due To Chip Bug

Intel Corp. said on Monday that the updates it released to address two high-profile security vulnerabilities in its chips are defective, advising customers, computer makers, and cloud providers to stop installing them.

The company’s executive vice president, Navin Shenoy, revealed the problem in a statement on its website, saying that updates released after months of development caused computers to restart more often than normal and other random behavior.

"I apologize for any disruption this change in guidance may cause," Shenoy said.  "The security of our products is critical for Intel, our customers and partners, and for me, personally. I assure you we are working around the clock to ensure we are addressing these issues."

The issue of the defective updates is different from complaints by customers for weeks that the updates slow computer performance. Intel has stated a typical home and business PC user should not see significant slowdowns.

Hence, Intel's failure to provide a usable update could cause businesses to put off their purchase of new computers, but the company is still trying to figure out what is going on as they haven’t resolved the matter yet.

Intel asked technology providers to start testing a new version of the updates, which it began distributing on Saturday.

The warning came nearly three weeks after Intel confirmed on Jan. 3 that its chips were affected by vulnerabilities known as Spectre and Meltdown, which make data on affected computers vulnerable to spying.

Meltdown was specific to chips from Intel, as well as one from SoftBank Group Corp's ARM Holdings. Spectre affected nearly every modern computing device, including ones with chips from Intel, ARM, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Problems with the updates have been growing since Intel on Jan. 11 said they were causing higher reboot rates in its older chips and then last week that the problem was affecting newer processors.

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