Meltdown and Specter are hardware vulnerability that hackers can exploit to gain access to valuable information on your computer. The problem is the processor chips or hardware of your computers.
According to spectreattack.com Meltdown and Spectre exploit critical vulnerabilities in modern processors. These hardware bugs allow programs to steal data which is currently processed on the computer. While programs are typically not permitted to read data from other programs, a malicious program can exploit Meltdown and Spectre to get hold of secrets stored in the memory of other running programs. This might include your passwords stored in a password manager or browser, your personal photos, emails, instant messages and even business-critical documents.
What is effected by this exploit called Meltdown? Desktop, Laptop, and Cloud computers may be affected by Meltdown. So far, every Intel processor which implements out-of-order execution is potentially affected, which is effectively every processor since 1995 (except Intel Itanium and Intel Atom before 2013).
What is effected by this exploit called Spectre? Desktops, Laptops, Cloud Servers, as well as Smartphones. More specifically, all modern processors capable of keeping many instructions in flight are potentially vulnerable. In particular, we have verified Spectre on Intel, AMD, and ARM processors.
Meltdown basically is a bug that melts security boundaries which are normally enforced by the hardware.
Spectre is a speculative execution that tricks other applications into accessing arbitrary locations in their memory.
This will allow hackers to read computer stored memory such as passwords, emails, photos and more.
Computer processor manufacturers are scrambling for patch, repairs and fixes. The fix will slow down your processor by 5% to 15% at the least. There appears to be some AMD processors that are not effected but the majority of processors are vulnerable.
Do not down load software from questionable sources. Look for the patch repairs provided by the processor manufacturers and download the fix. As an important reminder, always store your crypto's on hard wallets such as Ledger Nano S, Trezor and KeepKey.
references: https://spectreattack.com/ , http://www.amd.com/en/corporate/speculative-execution