The recent disclosure of the Meltdown and Spectre security flaws has led to the inevitable US law suit.

Intel has now been served with class action suits, and could be facing a huge bill if these actions succeed.

Three class-action lawsuits have been filed in California, Oregon and Indiana seeking compensation, and more will certainly follow. The security issues, slow down of performance and lack of disclosure of the issues will all figure in the cases, and the result could be the largest such case to date.

Although it will be hard for Intel to defend the flaws, it should be remembered that actual concrete damages will need to be demonstrated if the cases are to lead to compensation. Of course an out of court settlement may the most likely result for all concerned, and the most practical.

Corporate and cloud service providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft are very likely to seek compensation too for any software or hardware fixes they make.

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