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Kicking off the new year with a Meltdown.
Video: Intel addresses Meltdown and Spectre security flaws at CES 2018

I didn't expect the year to kick off with it raining iguanas in Florida, a gas pumping crisis in Oregon, or the discovery and release of two massive CPU flaws that affected many of the computers we live and work with every day. It appears 2018 has started with a bang! Since I'm not an expert on reptiles or pumping gas, let's recap the week that went haywire:

But wow... If any bugs deserve a name and website, these two do! Plenty has been written on the specific details about the CPU flaws, including the research I co-authored for Forrester clients, located here, so we'll skip a deep dive here to focus on some of the interesting details and implications of this attack:

Well, this one was bad, but there will be more. The digital transformation, ubiquitous connectivity, personalization, systems of engagement, and systems of insight will continue to become -- and define -- the ways we interact with each other. Those systems ride on top of hardware, run software, and collect and use more data than any other time in human history. Security wasn't always a priority when much of the hardware and software we depend on was developed. If these flaws teach us nothing else, they should teach us the ramifications of ignoring security when we design, build, and release hardware and software.