The vulnerability would require an outsider to already have obtained a victim's username and password.

A patch won’t completely remediate the problem.

For Intel, the Spectre and Meltdown saga drove home the fact that “we weren’t making it easy on our customers to take what we were giving them and actually get it out to people,” Intel's Audrey Plonk told CyberScoop.

The research highlights the extent to which routers can be a gateway for hackers into networked homes.

ASUS's statement contrasted with the findings of researchers who called the hack seemingly “one of the biggest supply-chain incidents ever.”

New research is a reminder of how versatile the hordes of infected computers can be in catering to hackers’ needs.