ALARMING

Apple: All Macs, iPhones Exposed to Chip Security Flaws

But the company says “there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time.”

Apple Inc. on Thursday announced that all Mac systems, iPhones, and iPads are affected by chip security flaws that could allow hackers to steal data. Researchers had sounded the alarm over the vulnerabilities a day earlier, warning that nearly all computing devices are affected. The company has stressed that the two flaws—dubbed Meltdown and Spectre—have not yet resulted in any known breaches. The Spectre bug affects nearly all computer chips made in the last decade, while Meltdown is limited to Intel Corp. chips. Apple said recent software updates should mitigate the vulnerabilities caused by Meltdown, and a fix to be rolled out for the Safari web browser in the coming days should protect against the Spectre flaw. Experts say the fixes are likely to slow down a computer’s performance, however.