Smart-phones and computers in the whole world had serious CPU defects - attacks were feared

Recently the NHK News On-line reported the following:

全世界のパソコンやスマホ ＣＰＵに深刻な欠陥 攻撃のおそれ

1月11日 11時29分

コンピューターの頭脳として世界中のパソコンやスマートフォンなどに使われている「ＣＰＵ」と呼ばれる装置に、サイバー攻撃に悪用されるおそれがある深刻な欠陥が見つかり、ソフトウエアメーカーなどが緊急に修正プログラムを公開して、アップデートするよう呼びかけています。

欠陥が見つかったのはコンピューターの頭脳にあたる「ＣＰＵ」と呼ばれる装置で、発見した海外の研究者らが公開した情報によりますと、この欠陥を悪用すると本来は特定のユーザーしか見ることができないパスワードなどの機密情報を第三者に見られてしまうおそれがあるということです。

影響は、世界中のほぼすべてのパソコンやスマートフォン、ゲーム機などに及ぶおそれがあり、マイクロソフトやアップルなどのメーカー各社では今月に入って緊急に修正プログラムを公開し、ユーザーにアップデートするよう呼びかけています。

この欠陥を悪用したサイバー攻撃はまだ確認されていませんが、セキュリティ企業「トレンドマイクロ」の岡本勝之さんは「こうした設計上の欠陥はサイバー攻撃で狙われやすい。パソコンは自動でアップデートされるものが多いが、スマートフォンには自動で修正されないものもあり、注意が必要だ」と話しています。

My translation

Some serious flaws were found in the so called "CPU" which was the brain of the computer equipment used in PCs and smart phones all over the world, and there was a fear of abuse by a cyber-attack and some software manufacturers had disclosed a corrective program urgently, and they were calling for up-dating.

Defects were found in the so called "CPU” which was an installation, according to the information disclosed by the overseas researchers who found them, it was said that when these defects were made used of,  there was a fear that password and other classified information that were specific to the user could be seen by other people.

Regarding the impact, there was a fear that all over the world nearly all PCs, smart phones and game machines would be affected, and a corrective program was released urgently from this month by Microsoft and Apple etc. manufacturing companies, and they were calling the users to up-date.

Although no cyber-attack abuse that made use of these defects had been confirmed yet, Mr. Katsuyuki Okamoto of "Trend Micro" which was a security enterprise said that “the flaws on such design are easy to be aimed at by a cyber-attack. In PC there are a lot of automatic up-dating, but in smart phone there are things which could not be automatically corrected, attention is needed."

         I hope my computer has automatically up-dated itself now.