Troubled times lie ahead for iPhone, iPad and Mac users

APPLE Inc will release a patch for the Safari web browser on its iPhones, iPads and Macs within days, it said on Thursday, after major chipmakers disclosed flaws that leave nearly every modern computing device vulnerable to hackers.

Browser makers Google, Microsoft Corp and Mozilla Corp’s Firefox all confirmed that the patches they currently have in place do not protect iOS users.

On Wednesday, Alphabet Inc’s Google and other security researchers disclosed two major chip flaws, one called Meltdown affecting only Intel Corp chips and one called Spectre affecting nearly all computer chips made in the last decade. Macs and iOS devices are vulnerable to Spectre attacks through code that can run in web browsers.

Shortly after the researchers disclosed the chip flaws on Wednesday, Google and Micro- soft released statements telling users which of their products were affected.

Apple remained silent about the fate of the hundreds of millions of users of its iPhones and iPads.

Ben Johnson, co- founder and chief strategist for cyber security firm Carbon Black, said: “Something this severe gets the attention of all the employees and executives at a company, and when they go asking the IT and security people about it and security doesn’t have an answer for iPhones and iPads, it just doesn’t give a whole lot of confidence.” – Reuters