Intel: Thirty consumer lawsuits filed over Meltdown and Spectre

Intel has made public that a total of 32 lawsuits have been filed against the chipmaker since the publication of the Meltdown and Specter leaks over those vulnerabilities. Of these, 30 group claims come from consumers.

The numbers come out in an annual report required by the US stock market watchdog SEC. In it, Intel writes that on February 15, a total of 32 lawsuits in the form of class actions, or class actions, are known to the chip maker. The report states: “The consumer complainants, who claim to represent various end-users of our products, generally claim to have been harmed by Intel’s actions or omissions in connection with the vulnerabilities and are seeking damages and other remedies.”

The other two lawsuits are so-called securities class actions by shareholders, according to the chipmaker. They complain that “the company and certain board members have violated law by making certain claims about Intel products and the company’s internal workings, which were found to be false after the vulnerabilities were published.” Intel says the cases are still at an early stage and therefore cannot estimate the potential loss the cases could cause. It plans to “vigorously defend itself” against the charges.

Finally, Intel also mentions a so-called derivative suit, which has been brought by three shareholders against ‘certain board members’ and other top people. They complain that Intel has wrongly taken no action against insider trading and that the accused have neglected their duties to the company. Intel will not disclose what those matters relate to, although it is possible that it concerns the sale of Intel shares by CEO Brian Krzanich before the publication of the vulnerabilities.

After publication in January, it appeared that Meltdown applies almost exclusively to Intel CPUs, while the variants of Specter also affect processors from other manufacturers. Recently, Intel announced changes to its bug bounty program. For example, until the end of this year, the company introduced a category for side channel attacks, with a maximum reward of a quarter of a million dollars.