Have you heard of the hardware bug with modern (perhaps all developed in the last 20yrs) Intel CPU's that if not (software / OS) patched can allow an attacker access to your secure information via the CPU's Kernel!
Windows, Linux, OS X and more affected!
(This is a hardware problem)
Note that AMD CPU's are not affected.
The attack method dubbed "Meltdown" & "Spectre" reveal memory locations where protected kernel space is present by identifying virtual memory pages in certain sequences.
-Meltdown breaks the isolation between OS and user applications and lets programs access the protected memory.
-Spectre also breaks isolation between applications letting an attacker trick error-free programs into giving up sensitive information.
Although there will be fixes, because this is a hardware issue, the fix may impact CPU performance by up to 30% depending on the system / hardware / task.
The next generation of Intel CPU's will likely have a hardware fix.
-Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 have been patched by Microsoft (check the Windows Update feature) however a majority of antivirus software is incompatible with the updates.
-Apple patched iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2 and tvOS 11.2 against Meltdown, and will soon release Spectre fixes.
-Mozilla browser has an update and it provides protection from Spectre and Meltdown attacks.
-Google Cloud & G Suite users are protected from the threat.
-Linux varies, check your distro' vendor.
-Ubuntu kernels update will apparently be released by Jan 9, 2018.
It's good news for AMD, that's for sure!
Stay patched, stay safe...