Shortly after dealing with the first vulnerability, Google and Microsoft are already reporting new vulnerabilities in the hardware. This time the name is a little longer: Speculative Store By-pass Variant 4 . The focus is on all computer chips installed over the past ten years, with proces-sors of the brands Intel and AMD being particularly affected. Although experts hardly see an increased threat to regular computers, they do fear high risks for cloud servers. Hackers could use the firmware to compromise security standards as well as view and change company data even on physically separate servers.

Attackers can also gain access to the encryption of the databases. In the worst case, the codes could allow insight into many more corporate secrets. The threat is so dangerous because the vulnerabilities are located right in the hardware and not, as is often the case, in the software code. Updates and security patches are expected in the coming weeks to months. In contrast to the previous vulnerabilities, however, the patches lastingly reduce computing speed. Adminis-trators are thus forced to choose between the risk of threats and loss of speed.