OT: Security threat from side channel attacks, linux vulnerable?

[stan]

http://web.mit.edu/press/2012/thwarting-eavesdropping-data.html

The above is a link to an article on a security threat called side
channel attack.  I don't completely understand how it can work, as the
description is somewhat vague.  But obviously some very intelligent
people can understand it, and can make it work.  If someone is familiar
with this area and could give a more detailed description, I'd
appreciate it.

The main question, though; is Fedora vulnerable to this sort of
attack?  It sounds like it is a combination of hardware and software
usage patterns that create the vulnerability, so do things like
randomized heap make this impossible?