Israeli class action suit over Meltdown & Spectre targets Apple, ARM and Intel

In spite of assurances from Intel that software fixes for the recently publicized vulnerabilities in CPU designs would not result in substantial performance penalty, Apple has nevertheless found itself in the middle of a legal brouhaha over Meltdown and Spectre over in Israel.

As reported Sunday by local outlet Hamodia, a group of users from Israel has filed a request with the Haifa District Court to file a class action lawsuit against Apple, ARM and Intel.

As you know, all iOS devices are powered by in-house designed chips based on ARM’s CPU bluperints. The plaintiffs include computer and phone users based on CPUs made by the firms.

From the complaint:

Something new’s appeared on the tech landscape. Our worst nightmares have come to pass and a giant tech bubble’s burst. That this is an earthquake is an understatement.

Since the announcement by the companies of the vulnerabilities of their products, we realize that we are living in a fantasy world and now realize that we do not even have a minimum of privacy.

The court is set to give its decision on the matter in the coming weeks. Similar lawsuits are reportedly being prepared in countries around the world.

As we reported, a knowledgeable hacker could take advantage of the Meltdown or Spectre vulnerability to access restricted memory on Intel and ARM-based processors, potentially revealing encryption keys and other confidential data.

The news of a pending Israeli lawsuit follows revelations that all Mac and iOS devices are affected by the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. Apple issued software fixes for iPhone, iPad and Mac, but the vulnerabilities still haven’t been resolved completely.