5 Security Things to Know for the Week of Jan. 8

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1) Patches for the Meltdown and Spectre processor design flaws arrived, and other developments surfaced, including the reliability of the fixes, legal trouble for the affected vendors and the question of whether the vulnerabilities could have previously been discovered by malicious hackers.

2) Several apps in the Google Play store claiming to provide security for devices actually contain snooping malware of their own.

3) The hot trend of crypto malware prompted one browser manufacturer to implement a feature preventing cryptocurrency mining.

4) LockPoS malware received an upgrade permitting it to more effectively compromise machines connected to point-of-sale card readers.

5)  Vulnerable GPS services are opening vast numbers of users up to privacy risks, including unwanted tracking.