Latest vulnerabilities have hit..again. This time, they say they havent been exploited..but then they say that there is no log of them being exploited, and that these things are difficult to prove one way or another.
Powers that be in the government side of things have been paying hackers for vulnerabilities, so that they can spy on unsuscepting citizens..world wide. It gets to be a bidding war as it were, who can pay the most for these things, whether you can sell the same secret over and over again, that sort of thing.
I digress.
Spectre and meltdown.
Yaas.
Suppoisedly have existed for twenty years..” but no-one knew”? riiiight.
Various experts have written their..various opinions about it all, and the common theme is..passwords on your computer are vulnerable. You know, the ones you use to automatically log in to..I dunno, facebook, gmail, Icloud, banking, that sort of thing. To login on your computer, usually means that there is a record kept of the password and user name. Sigh. Trick is, to erase thast record,..which means, to me at any rate, no more automatic logins. Bloomin’ heck. Thaz a bugga.
Oh, we now have patches to address these two critters, or, at least, versions.
If your logins have been compromised, there is usually evidence..strange transactions, money missing, login recods in your email that you know weren’t you, lockout from your emails, ie your password has been changed, your email being used to send spam, that sort of thing.
According to who you read, the critters are fixed, or they are in the process of being fixed, or there will always be difficulties. Information that you’d rather was kept private..is at risk as well.

mashable.com/2018/01/04spectre-meltdown-explained/#YJM7bSDD3mqK seems to have a good take on it all.
Next issue
Old computers.
I inherited an ipad mini. Not all that old in the scheme of things, but..apple isnt going to update it.
So, these vulnerabilities are NOT..repeat, NOT going to be addressed on my little blue ippy. Anytime soon.
Thaz another bugga.

So. Emails, facebook, banking..plus anything else that needs a login, is out for the little blue ippy. Which leaves..news! Must have a dozen different news icons, china, russia, usa, england..the lit goes on. Plus a few favourites from Aussieland. And, you need an apple id to do anything on the ippy, so..I dont share the honeybuns anymore, so a brand new apple id. Which means a new email address, which mean..the native email app works, for the first time ever. After I reset the ipad completely.
So, no user identifying stuff at all. Nothing on the blue ippy can be traced to a Billisaurus. Um, not even his birthday. Amongst other things. Only thing left is the wifi password, which enables the internet. Having a new identity would be..tempting to some..but the powers that be are pretty good at these things, and its not..quite frankly, worth the risk. Its like my attitude to road rules..if you keep to them, theres no need to look over your shoulder all the time, checking for mr or mrs plod, Anyway, theres nothing to learn from the blue ippy anymore. Except for browsing history maybe, the usual sort of stuff.

Oh, most computers are vulnerable, that includes your smartphones and androids. Certain “chipsets” are the problem. And update, update, and  update are the three rules here.

And a caveat..I am in the firing line if I offer advice..so, THIS ISNT ADVICE!  Its what I’ve done on my system, and is an example.Each system is different, and what works on one computer may not work on another.,  There are plenty of newsletters and columns out there that address these exploits, along with what they recommend. I check my system on start-up, update everything that needs it before I do anything elsel.You never know..