Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sold off a large portion of his stake in the company months after the chip maker was informed by Google of a significant security vulnerability in its flagship PC processors — but before the problem was publicly known.
The vulnerability, which affects processors from Intel, AMD, and ARM and could allow malicious actors to steal passwords and other secret data, became public this week. The disclosure has left processor makers and operating system vendors including Intel and Microsoft scrambling to get on top of the story and patch their products.
But while the public is just being informed about the security problem, tech companies have known about it for months. In fact, Google informed Intel of the vulnerability in June, an Intel representative told Business Insider in a statement.
That means Intel was aware of the problem before Krzanich sold off a big chunk of his holdings. Intel's CEO saw a $24 million windfall November 29 through a combination of selling shares he owned outright and exercising stock options.
The stock sale raised eyebrows when it was disclosed, primarily because it left Krzanich with just 250,000 shares of Intel stock — the bare minimum the company requires him to hold under his employment agreement.