Meltdown and Spectre Recap with Susan Bradley and Wayne Small

About Show #603

Spectre and Meltdown are still out there - are you protected? Richard chats with Susan Bradley and Wayne Small about Spectre and Meltdown, a set of vulnerabilities found in Intel, AMD, ARM and other CPUs. Since the public announcements in early January, there have been an on-going stream of patches to mitigate the vulnerability - but at the expense of performance and in some cases, stability. The presumption that all patches are good is significantly challenged by Spectre and Meltdown. What are the right answers here?

Susan Bradley has been patching since before the Code Red/Nimda days and remembers exactly where she was when SQL slammer hit (i.e. trying to buy something on ebay and wondering why the Internet was so slow). She writes the Patch Watch column for Brian Livingston's Windows Secrets, and was one of the authors of Windows Server 2008 Security Resource kit, and Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed. In real life she's the IT wrangler at her firm, Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn and Braun, where she manages a fleet of Windows Servers, an Exchange Server, desktops, a few Macs, several iPhones and tries to keep patches up to date on all of them. In addition, she provides forensic computer investigations for the litigation consulting arm of the firm. She blogs at www.sbsdiva.com on whatever she stumbled over that day. She blogs at askwoody.com on tracking patching and security issues.

Wayne Small has been involved in technology for over 40 years, designing and building his first computer before Nerds & Geeks were popular terms. He was a Microsoft MVP focused on Small Business Server for over 16 years and has contributed to the global SMB community via international public speaking, online forums and mailing lists, and his involvement in the SMB IT Professional community. Wayne runs his own blog which these days is focused on a wider range of Small Business and IT Pro topics at www.sbsfaq.com. In 2007, CRN Australia Magazine inducted Wayne into the CRN Hall of Fame for his community efforts, joining the likes of Bill Gates and other leading IT Industry personnel. Wayne started his Sydney based SMB IT focused consulting company, Correct Solutions in 1997 and following a number of mergers and acquisitions, is proud that his “little baby” now employs close to 50 staff servicing the technology needs of the SMB clients in Australia. In late 2006, Wayne acknowledged his core strength and passion lay in the technical side of things and stood back from running the business to work on cool technology within the business. His role these days at Correct Solutions involves being the Technology Specialist and helping provide the right solutions for their clients. Wayne also spends a fair chunk of his time working on building cloud solutions within their Australian based datacentres. Basically, a geeks dream. Wayne also works with Third Tier, providing serious level 3 consulting services for consultants that need assistance implementing complex solutions to meet their clients’ needs.

About Show #603

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