Now Apple faces lawsuit over Spectre and Meltdown CPU flaws

Lawyers making out like bandits over Meltdown and Spectre CPU security flaws

Apple has become the latest technology company to be slapped with a class-action lawsuit as a result of the Meltdown and Spectre CPU security flaws.

At the start of the month, plaintiffs filed a 17-page complaint against the company in a California court. The company is being blamed for not properly securing the ARM-based CPUs used in its devices.

Intriguingly, perhaps, the document doesn't cite the Intel microprocessors that the company uses in its range of Mac computers.

The latter will not just be affected by the Spectre security vulnerability, but also by Meltdown, which only affects Intel CPUs. Operating-system-level patches for Meltdown have been accused of affecting performance by anywhere between 10 and 40 per cent.

Apple is accused of withholding details about the flaws from customers and selling vulnerable products to the public.

The iDevices it sold and distributed were not of the quality represented and were not fit for their ordinary purposes

On 9 January, Apple admitted that a number of its products had been compromised by the Spectre flaw - including its iPhones, Mac computers and the tvOS used in the Apple TV set-top box.

"Security researchers have recently uncovered security issues known by two names, Meltdown and Spectre," warned the company in its statement released at the time.

"These issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all computing devices and operating systems. All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected."

Anthony Bartling and Jacqueline Olson, who filed the case against Apple, claimed: "Based upon information and belief, defendant [Apple] has known about the design defect giving rise to the security vulnerabilities since at least June 2017.

"[The] defendant has admitted that it released an update to its iOS operating system software to address the Meltdown technique in December 2017, but Apple knew or should have known of the design defect much earlier and could have disclosed the design defect more promptly."

While Intel is most affected by Meltdown, a number of Apple-designed ARM-based CPUs are also affected. Apple products bearing the Meltdown flaw include iPads, iPod Touches, and Apple TV devices, as well as its Intel-based computers.

The plaintiffs called on Apple to pay damages to every consumer who purchased an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV with CPUs bearing the flaw They've accused Apple of committing a breach of warranty, negligence and of "unjust enrichment".

They added: "Even after it was aware of the security vulnerabilities, Apple continued to sell and distribute iDevices without a repair or having made a disclosure about the Apple processor security vulnerabilities.

"The iDevices it sold and distributed were not of the quality represented and were not fit for their ordinary purposes."