This app tells you if your PC is vulnerable to the Spectre and Meltdown CPU flaws
The furore around the Meltdown and Spectre processors security flaws can be confusing, but the InSpectre app is here to help.
Developed by data recovery and maintenance software firm Gideon Research, the succinctly named InSpectre app simply tells you if your PC is vulnerable to either of the CPU flaws – Meltdown and Spectre affect Intel chips, while Spectre can affect AMD processors.
The app is a tiny 122KB program that doesn’t even need to be properly installed. Simply launch it and run it and it will scan your computer to ascertain if the PC is vulnerable to either of the security holes.
Once the scan is complete the program pops up and displays clear information about the status of your system and in no uncertain terms whether it’s vulnerable to Meltdown, Spectre or both of the CPU hardware bugs.
Users can scroll down through the program’s window view to get more information about their PC’s security health and how it related to Spectre and Meltdown, all in simple non-techie language.
While there have been no reports of Spectre or Meltdown being exploited in the wild by hackers, opportunistic cyber criminals have been creating fake patches loaded with malware to exploit any paranoia over the security risks the CPU flaws could pose.
And Gibson Research also warns people keen to give InSpectre a go to now download the tool from anywhere else as it may be a spoofed version that’s hiding malware, essentially posing more of a risk than the actual CPU flaws themselves. So it’s worth proceeding with caution on where you download both InSpectre and Meltdown and Spectre patches from.
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