Billions of computers at hacking risk: Indian-origin scientist By IANS | 4 Views hack.. Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, May 3 : An Indian-origin researcher has warned that billions of computers and other devices across the globe are vulnerable today owing to a vulnerability named 'Spectre' that was first discovered in 2018 but is open to hackers again. Since 'Spectre' was discovered, the world's most talented computer scientists from industry and academia have worked on software patches and hardware defenses, confident they've been able to protect the most vulnerable points in the speculative execution process without slowing down computing speeds too much. However, researchers, led by Ashish Venkat at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science, UVA Engineering, discovered that computer processors are open to hackers again.