Apple: All Macs and iOS devices affected by chip flaws

Apple has confirmed all its Mac systems and iOS devices are affected by two recently disclosed processor flaws called Spectre and Meltdown 

Here's the issue: Modern processors are designed to perform something called "speculative execution" to enhance performance. Data is supposed to be protected and isolated, but researchers discovered that in some cases, the information can be exposed while the processor queues it up.

Researchers said almost every computing system -- desktops, laptops, smartphones, and cloud servers -- is affected by the Spectre bug. Meltdown appears to be specific to chips made by Intel.

Apple users should make sure their computers, iOS devices, and all apps they use are kept up to date to protect themselves against hackers exploiting the flaws.

"Since exploiting many of these issues requires a malicious app to be loaded on your Mac or iOS device, we recommend downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store," the company said.

That is good advice regardless of whether or not your phone has a flaw in the processor.