In the last few days, there’s been a lot of discussion of a security flaw (Meltdown and Spectre) affecting the X86 CPU architecture and more specifically Intel CPUs. It was discovered by Google some time ago and was not scheduled to be made public just yet. However, growing information and leaks online led to Google releasing it early. This forced Microsoft to release the hotfix for Windows and the Microsoft Azure planned VM maintenance scheduled for 10th January has been brought forward to happen almost immediately.
