Vulnerability Management

Intel’s Krzanich sold $39 million in stock before chip flaws disclosed

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich's sale of Intel stock in November before security flaws in the chip became public is raising some eyebrows among regulatory and legal officials.

Krzanich sold $39 million worth of Intel stock on November 29, The Wall Street Journal reported, months after the chip maker became aware of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities on June 1. These take advantage of the speculative execution performance feature in modern CPUs which make the memory of virtually all computers and devices accessible to hackers.

The trade took place under a Security and Exchange Commission regulation that allows company execs to arrange to sell shares at a preset time. The WSJ said Krzanich had set up this trade on October 1, which was still well after the problems became known to Intel.

Executives at Equifax, which suffered a massive breach that exposed 145.5 million consumer records in 2017, were also accused of dumping their stock in the days leading up to the breach being made public.

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