Current Events in January 2018

Earlier this week, reports began to surface of a design flaw in certain Intel computer processor chips that put consumers at increased risk of cyberattack.

Though details of the issue were not immediately released to the public, experts said that fixing the vulnerability affected both consumers and companies that relied on the processors, and that a fix for the issue could cause huge slowdowns in online services and device performance.

In response to the reports, Intel issued a statement saying that the vulnerability did not just affect its processors, that any performance slowdowns would not be significant, and that solutions were currently being worked on to fix the issue.

Shortly after the announcement, a great deal of information about the two vulnerabilities – called Meltdown and Spectre, respectively – were revealed. Reports now indicate that the problem affects a much broader range of consumer electronic devices, as well as information hosted on servers in cloud computer networks.

Meltdown and Spectre

While Meltdown and Spectre could both allow hackers to access users’ personal data, they differ in how they actually go about accomplishing that task and how many devices they affect.

Meltdown affects nearly every Intel chip made in the past decade or two, as well as certain high-end microprocessors produced by ARM. Hackers who want to exploit the flaw could potentially do so by accessing the kernel memory areas found in users’ devices that store personal information such as passwords, log-in information, and cached files.

Luckily, security experts say that Meltdown is not difficult to protect against because it can be addressed with software patches. While these patches may still come with a performance penalty, estimates from various companies indicate that only certain tasks may be affected and at lower rates than originally predicted.

Unlike Meltdown, the Spectre flaw may be much more difficult to deal with and may affect all microprocessors currently on the market – including those made by Intel, ARM, and AMD.

Reports suggest that fully protecting against a Spectre attack may require changing how processor chips are designed, though some aspects of the flaw may be protected against through software updates.

While Spectre’s description paints a grim picture, companies and security experts say that the flaw is much harder for hackers to exploit.

Cloud-based services at risk

One of the more worrying aspects of both the Meltdown and Spectre flaws is their potential to help hackers steal information from consumers who use cloud-based services.

Hackers who manage to infect a consumer’s electronic device with malicious software or malware could potentially use the flaws to steal data from other users operating on the same server for a cloud-based service.

Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Citrix have all issued advisories for users of their cloud services on how to best protect themselves from these attacks. On Wednesday, Amazon also announced that it would be patching its systems to further protect users, and upcoming patches from both Google and Microsoft have also been scheduled.

Other affected companies such as Apple, AMD, and ARM have also released statements addressing the issue.

Health experts currently recommend that infants be introduced to solid foods starting when they’re about 6 months old. However, a new study finds that more than half of U.S. parents begin feeding their child solid foods before that age.

Researchers say introducing solid foods or new drinks too early can cause babies to miss out on important nutrients that come from breast milk and infant formula. Waiting too long to introduce solid foods can also have a negative impact on a child’s health.

Study details

For the study, researchers analyzed the food intake of almost 1,500 babies between 6 months and 3 years old. Data was taken from the 2009-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Parents were asked to report when they gave their baby anything other than breast milk or formula. The analysis showed that babies who were bottle-fed exclusively or breast-fed for less than 4 months were most likely to be introduced to foods too early.

Nearly one-third of infants in the U.S. are introduced to solid foods at around 6 months, the age currently recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

But more than half of babies have their first taste of solid foods too early. The study found that 16 percent of babies were given complementary foods before the age of 4 months; about 38 percent were introduced to solid foods or other drinks by 5 months of age.

Impact of waiting too long

A small percentage of babies (13 percent) didn’t start solid foods until they were 7 months or older. Lead investigator Chloe Barrera says waiting too long is also a mistake.

“Introducing babies to complementary foods too late has been associated with micronutrient deficiencies, allergies, and poorer diets later in life,” she told ConsumerAffairs.

Parents should aim to introduce solid foods at around 6 months old in order to allow children to benefit the most from breast milk or formula.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that for most infants, you do not need to give foods in a certain order.

“Iron-fortified infant cereals, meats, vegetables, and fruits are all good choices for infant’s first food,” Barrera said.

The full study has been published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

An existing diabetes drug may hold promise for treating Alzheimer's disease, researchers say.

In experiments on laboratory mice that express the human mutated genes causing Alzheimer's, the drug "significantly reversed memory loss", helping these mice show improved memory formation and learning in maze tests.

The research was conducted at the UK's Lancaster University, where lead researcher Christian Holscher expressed optimism the treatment could heal the neurological damage of chronic cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease.

An estimated 5.5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, which gradually erodes memory function and is ultimately fatal. Despite several promising developments over the last decade, there is still no cure.

More supportive than groundbreaking

James Hendrix, Ph.D., Director of Global Science Initiatives, Alzheimer's Association, says the work is more supportive than groundbreaking, since there are already clinical trials in humans underway.

"We've known for some time that diabetes is a risk factor for Alzheimer's, and other diabetic drugs are currently being tested in clinical trials," Hendrix told ConsumerAffairs.

Hendrix notes that the study required daily injections of the drug, something not as feasible for human patients. And just because the drug appeared to be effective in mice does not mean it would have the same effect on humans.

"It's always unclear how animal data will translate to humans," Hendrix said. "Animal models have been poor in predicting human efficacy for Alzheimer's disease therapies."

Alzheimer's–diabetes link

In recent years researchers have established a link between diabetes and Alzheimer's. According to the Mayo Clinic, a number of studies have suggested that people with diabetes–especially type 2 diabetes–are at higher risk of eventually developing Alzheimer's or other dementias.

One complication of diabetes is damage to blood vessels, which may increase the risk of vascular dementia. Reduced blood flow to the brain, it is believed, may cause reduced memory function.

Despite these and other complicating factors, researchers see reason for hope.

They note the Lancaster study is the first time that a triple receptor drug has been used in multiple ways to protect the brain from degeneration. Its three main ingredients are all growth factors.

That may be significant because problems with growth factor signalling have appeared in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

Alzheimer's Association scientists say more research is needed. If the drug is shown to have the same effects in people as it does in mice, it would have to go through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process before it could be cleared as an Alzheimer's disease treatment.

President Donald Trump claims to have killed an unprecedented amount of regulations, in what he says is a victory for Americans and our freedom. Is it possible to list every single regulation we lost in 2017?

Both Harvard’s and Columbia’s law schools are tracking every environmental rollback they can find; a recent count says a total of 60 environmental regulations have been gutted in 2017. 

The Heartland Institute, a conservative think-tank, is also trying to keep track. They are listing everything Trump has done to “make freedom rise.” But their list unimpressively does not detail every miniscule freedom that rose.

In total, the Trump administration is taking credit for killing 860 regulations, though some reports indicate that Trump is exaggerating those numbers. 

So no, it turns out that it’s not realistic to list every regulation that Trump killed in 2017. What follows is a list of twenty unexpected freedoms you now have. Are you tired of disclosing how much money you paid to foreign governments or having to make aerosol sprays without toxic solvents? Then get ready America, because it’s going to be an awesome 2018!

Freedom to accidentally kill migratory birds
Companies that accidentally kill migratory birds, namely the energy industry, will no longer be criminally prosecuted, the Trump administration announced in December, leading a National Audubon Society officer to proclaim that “Christmas came early for bird killers.”

Freedom to bully farmers
The growing power of industrial farms and multinational corporations over American agriculture has been felt particularly by independent farmers. Numerous chicken growers, for instance, have described being “bullied into signing narrower and narrower contracts [with meatpackers] until their business was unsustainable,” the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) admitted in 2016.   

It was a rare acknowledgement from the USDA, an agency that is typically characterized as protecting the interests of Big Agriculture. But under the outgoing Obama administration, the USDA proposed a set of modest measures, called the  Farmer Fair Practices Rules, to make it easier for independent farmers to take legal action against the abusive meatpackers they described.

The USDA held off on implementing the rules after Trump issued a regulatory freeze, ordering all government agencies to not enact any new Obama-era regulations. A coalition of 82 groups representing family farms, unions and consumers wrote a letter asking Trump to preserve the reforms, saying their situations were dire under increasingly abusive multinational corporations.  Major players in the meatpacking industry, on the other hand, urged Trump to drop the Farmer Fair Practices Rules because they claimed the rules could lead to frivolous litigation. 

The Trump administration ultimately sided with the more powerful industry interests and shelved the Obama-era rules, a statement that could apply to many policy decisions in 2017. 

Freedom from educational oversight
The Every Student Succeeds Act was Obama’s answer to the Bush-era No Child Left Behind act. A key measure would have mandated that every state submit its own educational plan to address weaknesses and needs in its educational system, which the federal government at the time said would “give states flexibility to create their own educational visions.” Trump in March used his authority under the Congressional Review Act to overturn that and other education the measures, saying he was “removing an additional layer of bureaucracy to encourage freedom in our schools." 

Freedom from energy-efficient appliances
Makers of five different categories of appliances had agreed to new, tougher efficiency standards under Obama. But the industry wasn’t satisfied with everything. One appliance industry representative told the Washington Post that  “we are not particularly happy with the boiler rule,” though he was okay with Obama’s walk-in cooler and fridge rule. The Department of Energy under Trump withdrew the rules and got sued by coalition of environmental advocacy groups and 11 states in June. The DOE then brought back some, but not all, of the appliance conservation measures, saying it in the Federal Register that it “determined that it did not receive any adverse comments providing a basis for withdrawal.”

Freedom from more fuel-efficient vehicles
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the trade group representing most major car companies, has been lobbying the Trump administration to strike down new fuel efficiency standards in vehicles that Obama finalized in 2012. The standards, set to go in effect by 2025, would have mandated that the average fleetwide fuel economy be 54.5 mpg. But in March, Trump agreed to take another look at the rules, the first step in possibly revoking them. A coalition of environmental and consumer advocacy groups wrote an open letter to automakers in October urging them to drop their lobbying campaign and stick with the tougher standards, but carmakers claim that following the regulations will cost too much money. 

Freedom for toxic solvents to remain in consumer products
Thousands of manmade chemicals have been “grandfathered” into consumer products under longtime federal laws that advocacy groups say are deeply outdated. But during Obama’s final days in office, the EPA proposed banning two toxic solvents,  trichloroethylene and methylene chloride, from paint thinners and aerosol sprays. Such a ban would have marked the first time that the EPA has prohibited use of a commercial chemical “in more than a quarter-century,” according to Chemical & Engineering news, the journal of the American Chemical Society. But the prohibition never happened. On December 14, Scott Pruitt’s EPA announced plans to postpone the ban on the toxic solvents indefinitely. 

Freedom to drug-test more people applying for unemployment benefits
States were traditionally banned from drug-testing people seeking unemployment benefits, until Obama passed a law allowing it in limited circumstances.  Congress voted this year to revoke that law, in hopes to expand the circumstances in which beneficiaries may be drug tested. 

Freedom from compensating Native American tribes for coal
The Interior Department under Obama had proposed rules to ensure that American Indian tribes receive “the maximum revenues” from coal mined on their land. Though the Obama administration claimed the rules would result in higher mineral payments to tribes, Trump’s analysis concluded it would not, claiming that “its scope is not broad enough to address the many concerns the commenters have raised about the Federal coal program more broadly.” Yet it was the coal industry that was behind the lobbying campaign to repeal the rules. 

Freedom to own a stake in for-profit colleges (even if you’re counseling veterans)
Veterans Affairs employees had long been prohibited from taking money from for-profit colleges. Taking money from the problematic institutions may lead VA employees to encourage veterans to choose them, the thinking went. That particular ethics law had been in effect for fifty years, but in October, the VA suddenly decided it created “illogical and unintended consequences.” 

Freedom to intensify deadly diseases
The New York Times discovered that the feds had lifted a three-year ban on experiments into altering deadly diseases. Some scientists apparently wanted to see whether it was possible to make deadly diseases more contagious. 

Freedom from getting sued by a customer (if you’re a bank)
Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote in what experts said was the biggest overhaul of consumer banking measures under the Trump administration to date. "Senators who voted in favor of this resolution just handed a gift to bad financial actors," said Melissa Stegman, senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending

Freedom from determining a leak threshold on respirator masks
This obscure Obama-era rule, attempting to establish a uniform label for determining whether a mask is leak-proof, was proposed in 2009 but never finalized. Under Trump, OSHA listened to concerns from mask respirator companies saying the regulation could exclude “good performing” products from the market.

Freedom from disclosing how much money you have given to foreign governments  (if you’re an oil Company)
Exxon was very happy when this rule got overturned. 

Freedom to dump waste in streams
Coal companies and others in the energy industry complained that the stream rule impeded their business. 

Freedom from disclosing how much you charge for luggage (if you’re an airline)
Customers typically prefer to know how much their bags will cost them when they are looking at ticket prices, but airlines would rather they find out just as they are buying tickets, at the last possible minute. Trump revoked this Obama-era regulation in December. 

Freedom to pool workers’ tips (if you’re the boss)
The Department of Labor is taking public comments on a proposal to bring back tipping pools, which the Obama administration had banned in 2011. If it goes through, employers can pool their servers’ tips once again, and will probably pocket about 16 percent of what servers earned, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

Freedom to discriminate (if you’re a business)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions in September filed an amicus brief in support of the Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Colorado bakery currently trying to argue in the courts that it shouldn’t have to sell wedding cakes to gay couples. 

Freedom to build flood-prone roads
Many of the houses flooded in Houston due to Hurricane Harvey were not in official “flood zones” as designated by the federal government, meaning those homeowners won’t be eligible to receive flood insurance. Flooding has also plagued federal infrastructure such as a naval base in Norfolk. Addressing long-standing criticisms that the US government has not been preparing for rising sea levels, the Obama administration proposed a requirement that rising sea levels be taken into account before building (or rebuilding) federally-funded infrastructure. But ten days before Hurricane Harvey hit, Trump signed an executive order to revoke those flood standards, “in order to ensure that the Federal environmental review and permitting process for infrastructure projects is coordinated, predictable, and transparent.”

Freedom From new food labels (delayed until 2020)
Nutritionists want bigger nutrition labels that more clearly list calories per packaging and sugars. The labels would also include advice targeted to pregnant women and children under four. The new labels were supposed to be rolled out on packaged food in 2018, but the Trump administration pushed the date forward two years, which they say will give food companies more time to comply. 

Freedom to drive trucks, even if you have a tendency to spontaneously fall asleep
After several bad crashes involving train engineers or truck drivers, the Obama administration proposed testing professional drivers for sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder that can impact one’s ability to stay awake during daytime. Incidence of the disease in Americans has risen dramatically over the years. The concern was that truck drivers who didn’t get a good night’s sleep due to sleep apnea may be prone to spontaneously falling asleep on their long, often unforgiving shifts. But the Department of Transportation in 2017 withdrew the proposal to require sleep apnea testing, saying only that “the Agencies have determined not to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking at this time.”

A new study from Oxford University suggests limiting children’s access to digital media may not benefit their well-being as much as previously thought. 

Researchers say it may actually be more beneficial for parents to become more actively engaged in exploring the digital world with their children rather than focusing on enforcing strict screen time limits.

There is “little or no support for the theory that digital screen use, on its own, is bad for young children’s psychological wellbeing,” said lead author Dr Andrew Pryzbylski of the Oxford Internet Institute.

"If anything, our findings suggest the broader family context, how parents set rules about digital screen time, and if they’re actively engaged in exploring the digital world together, are more important than the raw screen time.”

Encourage beneficial digital activity

While screen time on its own may not be inherently bad, experts stress that boundaries are important when it comes to technology use. Parents should strive to manage screen time in young kids and teens.

To do so, David Lord, CEO of JumpStart Games, recommends assessing the true intent of each device or app with the goal of weeding out any technology that will not be beneficial for your child.

“We live in a digital age that offers up many unique and creative tools that make life more productive and interesting, so a blanket limit is not prudent,” Lord told ConsumerAffairs.

Once you’ve made the call on which technology is life enhancing and engaging, you can then encourage that type of digital activity.

“The key is to stay informed and educated as a parent so you are the first line of digital decision making for your child,” said Lord. “We all know that we should limit things like snacks for kids, but what parent would limit the number of carrots or apples that a child desires?”

“Good technology follows the same analogy. Always offer up the wiser option and you won’t worry so much about limits.”

Find the right balance

In this digital age, parents should aim to help their children incorporate technology into their life in a healthy way.

“Technology is not to be compared with TV watching or music, technology is a trade, an important skill every young person should acquire like the ability to do banking, manage a home/apartment, etc,” Lord said.

“If there are concerns on content, parents should make technology time more akin to family time where learning is shared and celebrated. That way parents can be assured safe content is being consumed while their child learns important life skills.”

Parents should also be sure not to miss signs that their child’s technology use may be veering into unhealthy territory. Seeing your child live a sedentary lifestyle is a major tip-off that your they may need help finding a better balance.

“Keeping a balance between technology and an active lifestyle for children and teens is very important. Parents should set goals and time for their kids to be active and social and encourage a good balanced use of technology,” Lord said.

“The limiting of technology will happen organically when other activities are given more focus.”

Model good habits

To further encourage healthy technology use by children, parents should model good habits themselves. Setting priorities each day can also help naturally limit technology use

“It is so important for parents to be good role models and limit their own technology use and take advantage of physical, emotional and social opportunities to engage with their children and others. An active family lifestyle organically promotes screen and tech limits without having to continually set down limits and boundaries,” Lord said.

“If parents emphase homework and studying, sports, hobbies, friends, events, etc. as a higher priority on a day to day basis for their children, then technology use should naturally decline as available time lessens. In so doing, that screen time becomes more valuable and children become more selective in how they use their time.”

Retailer Forever 21 has confirmed a payment card data breach it first raised as a possibility in mid-November.

The company said it received a report from a third party in mid-October suggesting there could have been unauthorized access to payment card data at certain stores. The investigation revealed that encryption technology, installed on point-of-sale (POS) devices in 2015, was not always activated at some stores.

Investigators then discovered signs of unauthorized network access and installation of malware on some POS devices. The malware searched for payment card data as it moved through the POS device.

No consistent pattern

Complicating the investigation is the fact that the encryption was not turned off in all stores; it was off for only a few days to several weeks in some stores; and it was off most of the time in other stores.

"Each Forever 21 store has multiple POS devices, and in most instances only one or a few of the POS devices were involved," the company said in a statement. In nearly all cases, potentially compromised transactions occurred between March and October 2017.

Mark Cline, a vice president at Netsurion, a provider of managed security services for multi-location businesses, says there are important lessons to learn here for both consumers and retailers.

“With its endless POS endpoints, the retail industry has always been a desirable target for cybercriminals," he told ConsumerAffairs. "They know that if they can introduce malware into POS networks, they can make a decent amount of cash by selling credit card numbers on the dark web. With their millions of customers, large retailers, like Forever 21, have typically been the hardest hit."

The costs for companies can be enormous. Cline says a retailer pays on average $172 per stolen record in "clean-up costs."

The challenge for retailers is to stay ahead of the hackers. Cline suggests companies first run a vulnerability scan on their internal networks and then update all operating system and software upgrades and patches immediately.

Consumers inconvenienced

The cost for consumers is mostly in convenience. If promptly reported, consumer liability for fraudulent use of a credit card is limited to $50, and in many cases there is no loss.

If debit card information is stolen, risks may be greater. Policies protecting consumers in these cases tend to vary bank to bank. Needless to say, a thief with a consumer's complete debit card information could clean out the account very quickly.

Consumers using a payment card at a POS terminal are safer paying with a credit card than a debit card. Paying with cash is safer still.

Forever 21 operates more than 815 stores in 57 countries with retailers in the United States and overseas. The company did not provide the number of its stores that may have been affected by the data breach.

January is National Get Organized Month, and with good reason. ‘Get organized’ is consistently on just about every list of the most popular New Year’s resolutions.

If you’re among those starting off the New Year with a goal of getting organized, you may be wondering where to begin. Cutting through the clutter starts with setting attainable and realistic goals, says professional organizer Chris McKenry.

“If being organized is a goal, spend a few minutes each day decluttering just one area of your home or office. Before you know it the clutter will be gone and you can focus on other goals,” he told ConsumerAffairs.

Organize holiday decor

Holiday decorations can take up a sizable chunk of space in an attic, basement, or other storage area. To prevent yourself from holding onto decor you no longer use, McKenny suggests taking stock of what you enjoyed having on display this year.

“Get out all your containers and see what was NOT used this year,” he suggests. “Items no longer used or loved should be set aside for donations. Before taking decorations down, take pictures and then place items in containers to help remember what you liked next year.”

You can sort decorations as they come down by category or by room, he says -- whichever will make decking the halls easier next year. He also recommends labeling boxes of holiday decoration with the year the decorations were used.

“This will help you remember what possibly is no longer wanted.  Before closing the container place a new package of ornament hooks. Now you are ready for next year!”  

Edit, Sort, Contain, Maintain

Keeping clutter at bay throughout your home can be a challenging feat, but one that can be made easier by practicing the “edit, sort, contain, maintain” technique.

Here are the key principles:

• Edit. Throughout each month, collect items around your house that you no longer use, want, or love. Then donate them to your favorite charity. You can even mail them to charity in an old Amazon box you may have lying around. Remember that charities don’t want trash, says McKenny; sometimes things should just be trashed or recycled.

• Sort. Categorize what is left. In your closets, keep pants together, shirts, etc -- then sort each clothing category by color. In the kitchen, create zones. Keep all food in the food storage zone, all cookware in the cooking zone, all towels and cleaning supplies in the clean-up zone, and so on.

• Contain. “Containing doesn’t necessarily mean using containers, but containers may be helpful,” says McKenry. He recommends grouping similar items together and keeping things where they are used. “This may mean the ironing board goes in the hall closet not the laundry room if ironing is done in front of the TV.”

• Maintain. The above-mentioned three steps are just the beginning. Staying organized is a continuous journey, McKenry says. “Things happen, and clutter comes at us every day. Plan to do maintenance throughout the year to keep your life organized.”

Cooper Tire & Rubber is recalling 41,014 of the following tires:

• Cooper Cobra Radial G/T tires, sizes P215/70R14, P225/70R14 and P225/70R15;
• Cornell 1000 tires, size P235/75R15;
• El Dorado Golden Fury GFT tires, size P205/75R15;
• Futura GLS Super Sport tires, size P225/70R14;
• Mastercraft Avenger G/T tires, size P225/70R14;
• Mastercraft MC-440 tires, sizes 185/60R15, 215/60R16, 225/60R16, 225/60R17 and 205/55R16;
• Starfire RS-C 2.0 tires, sizes 215/60R16 and 205/55R16;
• Starfire SF-340 tires, sizes P215/65R16, P185/60R15, P215/60R16 and P225/60R16;
• Cooper Trendsetter SE tires, sizes P205/75R15 and P235/75R15; Mastercraft A/S IV tires, sizes P205/75R15 and P235/75R15; and
• Vanderbilt Turbo-Tech G/T Radial tires, size P225/70R14.

The tires were manufactured with an incorrect belt rubber compound that may result in poor adhesion of the rubber to the belt wires, potentially resulting in a belt separation.

If the belt separates from the tire it can cause loss of vehicle control, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

Cooper will notify owners, and dealers will replace the tires, free of charge.

The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule. Owners may contact Cooper customer service at 1-800-854-6288. Cooper's number for this recall is 170.

If you purchased or received a brand new, blazing fast PC over the holidays, you may be in for some disappointment in the next few weeks.

The Register reports that a design flaw in certain Intel processor chips produced in the last decade has left devices that use them with a serious security flaw. 

While Intel has not yet released details of the flaw, the necessary updates to Linux, Windows, and macOS systems may slow a device’s processing speed by as much as 30 percent.

Unfortunately, consumers who want to resolve the issue may not have many appealing options. Not fixing the problem may put users at risk of having their devices and private information compromised; relying on upcoming software fixes for their operating system may drastically slow down users’ devices; and going out and buying a new processor not affected by the flaw could be costly.

Intel has not yet returned a request for comment from ConsumerAffairs.

Vulnerable to cyber attack

While full details of the design flaw remain unclear, reports suggest that it may allow user programs to gain access to protected kernel memory areas – a key component of all operating systems that stores information and carries out computer tasks.

A vulnerability to these areas would allow a hacker to access kernel memory and steal all kinds of sensitive information including passwords, log-in information, or cached files. Savvy hackers could even abuse the kernel to make machines more vulnerable to other types of malicious bugs or malware.

While this alleged vulnerability is bad enough from a consumer standpoint, it could be even worse for big-name companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google who use Intel chips. Several companies have already scheduled major security updates for early January to address the issue, but it’s possible that the services these companies provide could be impacted by huge slowdowns as a result.

Slowed performance vs. paying for replacement

Similarly, fixing the vulnerability from a software standpoint at the consumer level has significant drawbacks. In order to make kernel memory areas secure, engineers may have to separate them from user processes altogether so that they can’t be accessed by malicious programs or codes.

However, this fix would require PC’s to switch back and forth between two separate address spaces. Simple tasks that previously could be done instantly would now take some time to process, leading to a slowdown in overall performance for certain tasks.

The other option of buying a separate, non-affected processor may yield better results, but the cost of the replacement is another factor to consider. Processor prices can range widely depending on brand and capability, with newer, higher-end models costing hundreds of dollars.

Apple has stepped up its replacement iPhone battery offer, making the $29 price effective immediately instead of at the end of the month as previously announced.

Apple cut $50 off the battery price after facing allegations that it slowed the performance of older iPhone models to preserve battery life. The company said it feared the older batteries would not be able to keep up with the demands of the new software.

But as many tech experts have pointed out, Apple's battery price reduction only applies to owners of the iPhone 6 or iPhone 7. It does not apply to consumers who own even earlier models.

A company specializing in repairs, iFixit, has thrown a lifeline to owners of these older iPhones. The company has announced it is cutting the price for its do-it-yourself iPhone battery repair kits to between $15 and $25. Kits are available for the older models, including the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, or iPhone 5c.

Online repair manual

The company calls itself an "online repair manual," providing instructions and advice for as many as 100 million people a year to fix products from bicycles, to cars, to washing machines.

Company CEO Kyle Wiens says the most popular repairs are for iPhones, including replacement of batteries and screens. He says iPhone owners will need help to replace a battery.

"If you have an iPhone and you want to put in a new battery there are two screws on the bottom," Wiens told ConsumerAffairs. "It's a secret screw that Apple invented, so a Phillips or flathead screwdriver isn't going to work. Apple does that because they don't want anyone changing the batteries but them."

So iFixit developed a kit to help iPhone owners replace the battery themselves. In addition to a new battery, the kit contains the needed tools.

"We reverse engineered the screwdriver and sell it in the kit," Wiens said. "We actually include replacement Phillips screws so that once you're done working on your phone you can make it easy to get into in the future."

Alternative is to go to an Apple Store

Replacement kits cost anywhere from $15 to $25, depending on the phone model. The option for owners of the older iPhones is to go to the nearest Apple Store. And Wiens says it might not be close by.

"It's a pretty inconvenient option because you can only do it at an Apple Store and there's only 499 of them around the world and they've sold a billion iPhones so far, so you're trying to get those billion iPhones back to 499 physical locations," Wiens said. "It's a daunting task."

Apple did not respond to a ConsumerAffairs request for comment, but Wiens says his small company has a good relationship with the technology giant. He says he's a big Apple fan and believes the feeling is mutual.

"We know that they use our tools in their labs," he said. "But when it comes to repairs and after market options, they say they should be the only ones to perform them."

And for many consumers, that might be the better option. But iFixit provides an option for do-it-yourselfers. And in a way, that's the company's mission.

"We're fighting a rearguard action to keep repair relevant to the modern world," Wiens said.

Holiday shoppers spent a staggering $598 billion in 2017, and many of those dollars went to online retailers like Amazon.

Consumers who may be wondering what to do with all those empty boxes left over from the holiday shopping season have an environmentally-friendly and charitable option.

Give Back Box, a charity sponsored by Amazon and other major retailers, aims to make it easy for consumers to donate their old clothing, household items, and accessories in recycled boxes affixed with a free shipping label.

How it works

To use Give Back Box, consumers simply fill up an unused box (an empty Amazon box or any shippable box) with donations, then print out a pre-paid label on the Give Back Box site.

From there, the box will be picked up and sent to those in need. Donations go directly to the nearest participating charitable organization and will help support employment placement, job training, and other community-based services. Donating through Give Back Box also helps divert cardboard from landfills.

“Give Back Box is a great idea on so many levels,” said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, in a statement.

“By reusing boxes, you’re protecting the environment; by giving to Goodwill, you’re helping to provide jobs and skills training in your own community; and by donating your stuff to a good cause, you’ll feel better about clearing out unwanted items from your home,” he said.

Guidelines

Because charities like Goodwill and the Salvation Army pay for the shipping, they ask that boxes are filled to the brim when shipped. Consumers are also asked to donate only items that are of good quality so that organizations can sell them for a profit.

Give Back Box asks that consumers not send electronics, liquids, ammunition, or anything fragile or hazardous.

You can drop a labeled box at any U.S. Post Office or UPS location or schedule a USPS pickup. You can even get a tax receipt if you register with Give Back Box.

While Amazon is the largest retailer taking part in the Give Back Box program, it's not the only one. Newegg, Overstock, Loft, Rei Co-op, Levi's, Asics, and Ann Taylor are among participating retailers.

Home prices closed out 2017 with a 6.2 percent year-over-year increase, according to the latest accounting by the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

Rising home prices, coupled with the reduction of some homeownership tax benefits, could bring about significant changes to the 2018 housing market. Javier Vivas, Director, Economic Research at realtor.com, sees housing markets with both high home prices and high taxes as facing some of the biggest challenges.

"Constricted affordability will continue to be a recurring pattern in the housing market in 2018, and we anticipate growth to be concentrated around areas where home prices still have room to grow," Vivas told ConsumerAffairs.

Possible migration

For example, there will be increasing incentives for homeowners in some states, such as New York and California, to sell their homes and move to the Sunbelt or Midwest where taxes (and home prices) are lower.

That's because starting this year, the tax deduction for state and local taxes is capped at $10,000. In markets where the average home is $500,000 or more, homeowners may pay a lot more than that in property taxes.

Pricier housing markets also tend to be in states where the state tax rate is high. Where homeowners could offset their expensive homes by writing off state and local taxes, some homeowners may no longer have that option.

Vivas believes that could result in what real estate economists see as a migration–homeowners leaving expensive markets for cities where costs are lower.

"However, lower home prices are just one part of the equation," Vivas said. "For markets to see a constant influx of new residents, there must also be a steady stream of jobs and positive economic momentum."

He notes the top 10 housing markets predicted for growth in the realtor.com 2018 housing forecast have seen employment and population grow at double the rate of the rest of the country.

Where the population may grow

That forecast predicts southern cities will see the biggest growth this year, led by Tulsa, Okla., Little Rock, Ark., and Charlotte, N.C.

A declining inventory of homes for sale has been a major factor in driving up home prices since 2015. With fewer homes for sale, sellers can set–and usually get–higher prices.

"While the total number of homes for sale will likely stay constricted for much of the year, we actually expect inventory declines to decelerate slowly throughout 2018," Vivas said.

But that might not help first-time homebuyers. Vivas believes the majority of this inventory growth may come in the mid-to-upper tier price points, including homes priced above $350,000.

For consumers looking for that first home, Vivas says 2018 may prove to be as challenging as 2017, because "the levels of starter homes have been significantly depleted."