This is information supplied by a tech support vendor, that may be helpful.
In case you missed it, it was announced last week that there are very wide-spread vulnerabilities that involve almost every CPU made since 1995. The “Meltdown” and “Spectre” security threats will impact everyone, as all major chipset vendors, operating systems, cloud providers and application makers are affected. In simple terms, it will affect computers, laptops, servers, tablets and phones, i.e. any device with a chip. These vulnerabilities can be exploited to steal data, like your passwords, photos, emails, instant messages and documents.
Now what?
All systems will need to be patched. Some systems will need patches to the operating system and applications as well, including the installation of firmware updates. An assessment by manufacturer of each machine’s model will help determine whether or not firmware updates are needed. In addition, your anti-virus software will need to be compatible with the new patches before they can be applied. View this public site to check the status of many anti-virus products to see if they are ready for patching.
Note that some devices containing AMD chips have been reported becoming unbootable after installing the Microsoft security update released on January 3, 2018. If this is the case for you, you will need to visit Microsoft’s Support Site to restore your machine, as there was a compatibility issue between this patch and various anti-virus programs.. If the two are incompatible, machines become unbootable.
If you are applying the security patch on your own, we recommend that you verify that your currently installed anti-virus program is compatible. Most anti-virus vendor websites are already indicating their status regarding this patch.