How to Protect Your PC From Intel’s Latest Vulnerability Right Now
Who doesn’t like to hear news that a new vulnerability in one of the key components of their computers – the central processing unit that runs all of this – could allow an attacker to steal sensitive data (like your passwords or encryption keys) directly from your processor? When that happens, it’s always fun. Fortunately, fixing Intel’s recently announced vulnerability – yes, Intel again – could n’t be easier.
In fact, you do n’t really need to do anything, as your Mac, Windows or Chromebook computer should automatically update according to the way you installed what’s on your operating system. And while it is unlikely that any random person will attack you with the new ZombieLoad attack, as it has been aptly named, it never hurts to take the initiative when a problem of this magnitude is causing all the big tech companies to quickly unleash a flurry. patches.
Or, in other words, don’t wait for the update itself to download. Upgrade your system now. That being said, make sure that automatic updates work exactly as you expect them to.
Microsoft Windows 10
Click the Start button and start typing the word Update. Once the “Check for Updates” option appears, click on it. (This should be familiar to anyone who has used a Windows PC since, oh, never.) Windows 10 should automatically start checking to see if there are any new updates for your system. Whatever it finds, it should automatically start downloading and installing – at least that’s how I set up my system.
You may also need to restart your computer, so make sure you are at a suitable stopping point as soon as Windows informs you that it is almost ready to complete the update process. (You can also check yourself while downloading and installing updates – if you see a “pending restart” status, be prepared to do so when all of your other updates have finished installing.)
Configuring automatic updates and other options
While you’re here, take a moment to make sure Windows updates work exactly the way you want them to, even if you already think you’ve got it all set up. (I only recently discovered that my updates were not set to download automatically, although I know I set that up a while ago.)
Change your active hours so that updates don’t bother you when you try to work – in particular, mandatory resets for those updates. In the advanced options of Windows Update, I like to tweak several options:
- Turn on getting updates for other Microsoft products when you update Windows (never hurts!).
- Turn on automatic download of updates (why not?).
- Enable the setting to display a notification on your computer whenever an update requires a restart.
I also recommend clicking on Delivery Optimization at the bottom of the Advanced Options window. There, you’ll be able to allow downloads from other computers on your network — a useful way to speed up your updates — as well as other computers on the Internet. (If you choose the second option, make sure you click Advanced Options on this screen and adjust your boot options so you don’t use up all your bandwidth by sending Windows updates to random strangers.)
Bonus update: Windows XP
For those of you still clinging to Microsoft’s ancient operating system, Windows XP, you cannot trust Windows Update to provide you with critical security fixes for your system. The operating system is in an end-of-life state, which means that Microsoft no longer releases automatic updates for the OS.
You will want to bookmark this page and check from time to time if there are any critical updates that you need to manually install. It just so happens that right now, recently released, a wormhole vulnerability in Remote Desktop Services has been fixed. This is not related to the Intel mess I mentioned earlier, but it is not an update that you should ignore as well. As Microsoft writes:
This vulnerability is pre-authentication and does not require user intervention. In other words, the vulnerability is a worm-like vulnerability, which means that any future malware that exploits this vulnerability could spread from a vulnerable computer to a vulnerable computer in a similar way to how WannaCry malware spread around the world in 2017. Although we have not observed exploitation of this vulnerability, it is highly likely that attackers will write an exploit for this vulnerability and include it in their malware.
Maybe it’s time to upgrade to a newer version of Windows, if possible?
Apple’s macOS
Upgrading your system is easy. Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen, select System Preferences, and click the Software Update icon – it looks like a gear. Your system will automatically start checking for updates. If any, you can start the process by clicking the just active Update Now button.
Configuring automatic updates and other options
This shouldn’t be too difficult either. If you want to make sure your Mac checks for and prepares for updates in the background, make sure the “ Update my Mac automatically” option is turned on. Click the Advanced button and you can customize exactly what your Mac should do on your behalf. I recommend leaving all options checked – why don’t you need the latest updates for everything on your system? – but that’s just me.
Google Chrome OS
You should be notified of pending (or pending) updates for your apps and operating system in the lower-right corner of your Chromebook screen. You can also check for system updates yourself by clicking that lower-right area and clicking the smaller gear icon to open Chrome OS settings.
Then click on the hamburger icon in the upper left corner of the window and select About Chrome OS. From there click the Check for Updates button.
While Chrome OS has no update-related settings to tweak, you can have a little fun and enable developer mode to try beta versions of future versions of Chrome OS. To get to the wild side of Chrome OS, simply click on Build Details on the same screen and then look for the Change Channel button. Click on it and you can switch to the beta or developer channel. I recommend sticking with the beta, which is probably a little more stable than the more regularly updated developer builds.