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Newly-discovered security flaws allow hackers to monitor devices in real time

Posted at 4:42 PM, Jan 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-05 18:48:20-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- This week a team of developers searching computer chips looking for vulnerabilities discovered two massive security flaws.

"They found that whatever data you are putting through your system can be looked at in real time by these hacks," Jaime Enriquez, a manager at "Mobile Revive" in Westport said.

The flaws are dubbed "Meltdown" and "Spectre". Both could allow hackers to steal passwords and even the entire memory of devices made in the past two decades.

"Whenever there is somebody typing something up or they open a program it's saved into temporary memory. Well, these vulnerabilities, they tend to see those things," Enriquez said.

Tech companies including Apple and Microsoft have rolled out a patch to fix the "meltdown" flaw.

"All you have to do is going and update your system however that may be -- you go to your settings, type in update, it'll come up no matter what the age of the device is," Enriquez said.

Although to some, there will be a noticeable difference.

"After an update, you might see a bit of a slow down on your system because there is now another layer of security on your system that will slow it down but it's nothing that you have to worry about and you will have a safer system afterward,"  Enriquez said.

As for the "Spectre" flaw, there isn't a fix just yet.

One of the developers who discovered it told "The New York Times" a patch may not be available until new chips hit the market.

As of Friday, no one's information has been comprised as a result of these flaws yet.