Intel's Security Report for 2024 says its products are more secure than AMD's or NVIDIA's

Intel has released its 2024 Intel Product Security Report, which includes several findings and statistics designed to showcase the company's "competitive edge in security assurance." Especially when compared to its main competition in the CPU space, AMD, and especially when it comes to Intel's proactive approach to discovering vulnerabilities.

3

Intel's CPU firmware vulnerability and discovery compared to AMD's, image credit: Intel.

According to a detailed slide in the report, "Intel's proactive product security assurance efforts resulted in the discovery and mitigation of 94% of platform firmware vulnerabilities" compared to just 57% on AMD's side. This is for vulnerabilities discovered within CPU firmware, which is a significant concern. One of the highest-profile security stories of 2024 was the 'Sinkclose' vulnerability affecting millions of Ryzen CPUs.

Intel also outlines how its GPU security stacks up against NVIDIA and AMD, where Team Blue had the "fewest number of GPU vulnerabilities in 2024 at 10, while AMD had 13 and NVIDIA posted 18." And of those 18 for NVIDIA, they are all 'high severity.'

Intel even includes a ranking for the key silicon makers regarding Product Security Assurance, which covers everything from development to security practices, discovery, response, and training.

3

1. Intel
2. Qualcomm
3. AMD
4. NVIDIA
5. ARM

All of this suggests that Intel is right up there regarding security, which makes sense when you consider that most businesses and workplaces run on Intel hardware. Being able to take down AMD or NVIDIA a peg or two has become increasingly rare for Intel, so we can understand the company making special note of a key area where it's leading the pack. The full report is fascinating, so be sure to check it out. Here's a summary of the key findings and points.

• 96% of the vulnerabilities addressed by Intel in 2024 were discovered through Intel's proactive product security assurance efforts.
• 100% of the Intel processor vulnerabilities addressed were discovered through internal security research.
• 53% of the 374 vulnerabilities Intel addressed received a bug bounty payment.
• 84% of the bug bounties paid were in the software category.
• AMD reported 4.4x more firmware vulnerabilities in their hardware root-of-trust than Intel.
• AMD reported 1.8x more firmware vulnerabilities in their confidential computing technologies than Intel.
• In the GPU category, NVIDIA had only high-severity vulnerabilities (18) in 2024.