Security Researchers Publish Ryzen Flaws, Gave AMD 24 Hours Prior Notice

Post by Rylinks » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 1:44 AM UTC

eganist wrote: post #284

puzzlingcaptcha wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insider trading usually implies coming into possession of confidential information and acting on it. Trading on non-public information that results from your own research and then announcing it is not illegal. Imagine someone buying stock and then saying the company is good. Not very controversial is it. Warren Buffet does it. Shorting stock and saying the company is bad is just the flip side of it. In fact, there ar…

> Trading on non-public information that results from your own research and then announcing it is not illegal. Correct. I'm not referring to this. I'm referring to trading on information discerned from communications with e.g. AMD but prior to disclosure of the vulnerability, especially if those communications which establish e.g. timelines are only disclosed after trading Hence my point about trading upon understand…

Post by bigiain » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 1:50 AM UTC

Retric wrote: post #254

bigiain wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pity that vast incentive didn't seem to work out when they promoted all these chips as having "Firmware Trusted Platform Module", "Secure Encrypted Virtualization", "AMD Secure Processor", and "AMD Secure OS" as features. AMDs incentive, like any corporation, is to maximise shareholder value. Same as any tiny little security research firm. If a research firm can maximise their profit buy discovering vulnerabilities a…

CPU's have real value. As to ethics that's mostly irrelevant to this discussion. Both sides could have ethical behavior, I am simply pointing out which side has the larger incentives to exaggerate. After all the stock could drop and a short seller could still lose money. They need the stock to drop a lot even over a minor issue.

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 1:53 AM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #303

Retric wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CPU's have real value. As to ethics that's mostly irrelevant to this discussion. Both sides could have ethical behavior, I am simply pointing out which side has the larger incentives to exaggerate. After all the stock could drop and a short seller could still lose money. They need the stock to drop a lot even over a minor issue.

While the dollar value of AMDs incentive is without doubt larger - the existential value of the smaller amount incentivising the researcher is likely more motivating...

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 2:10 AM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #243

eropple wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use AMD chips. It's about more than AMD's stock price. I do not need to be a security researcher to understand that they, as with everyone else, have an obligation to the body politic to not be a dick (as in all things!). There are actors who may be aware of this attack already--but, as I mentioned elsethread, wider knowledge of attacks like this have a much higher chance of splashing back on end users who lit…

> I do not need to be a security researcher to understand that they, as with everyone else, have an obligation to the body politic to not be a dick So are you talking about AMD being dicks by releasing buggy chips, or the researchers somehow being dicks for finding out? Related question: if a "food security researcher" discovered a vendor was selling contaminated produce - would it be reasonable for them to give the…

Post by yellow_postit » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 2:50 AM UTC

travmatt wrote: post #304

hermitdev wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, this could be interesting. AMD is a US listed security. If true, these two lads could very look forward to a visit from the US SEC. Seeing as how market manipulation is not a capital-crime, I don't see Australia objecting to an extradition, should charges be warranted.

Which exact crime are you alleging, specifically? Plenty of short sellers investigate companies and their products and make investment decisions based on their findings.