Posted on 02/19/2015 11:58:24 AM PST by Wolfie
Lenovo Has Been Selling Laptops with Malware Pre-Installed
Computer maker Lenovo has been shipping laptops prepackaged with malware that makes you more vulnerable to hackers — all for the sake of serving you advertisements.
Made by a company called “Superfish,” the software is essentially an Internet browser add-on that injects ads onto websites you visit.
Besides taking up space in your Lenovo computer, the add-on is also dangerous because it undermines basic computer security protocols.
That’s because it tampers with a widely-used system of official website certificates. That makes it hard for your computer to recognize a fake bank website, for instance.
It’s a nasty trick — the same one that the in-flight Wi-Fi service Gogo was caught doing last month.
"This is exactly what bad guys do with trojans and other malicious software to trick users to access fake sites to surveil/monitor private communications," said Kevin Bocek, an executive at cybersecurity company Venafi.
Customers started spotting this on their Lenovo computers in mid-2014.
After facing a fierce backlash by customers and computer security experts this week, Lenovo on Thursday acknowledged as much.
"User feedback was not positive," so Lenovo stopped preloading the software on new computers in January, a company spokesman said. Lenovo also promised it "will not preload this software in the future" and said it disabled the feature on its servers, which essentially kills the program on everyone’s computer.
The company initially claimed it only included Superfish on “some consumer notebook products shipped in a short window between October and December.” When CNNMoney noted that customers started complaining about this feature earlier than that, Lenovo acknowledged that factory installations of Superfish started back in September.
But questions remain. It’s also unclear which exact laptop models were affected. A Lenovo representative said the company could not immediately answer these questions.
So, what was the point of the “Superfish Visual Discovery” software? It makes it easier to shop for deals. The program analyzes images you see on the Web and presents similar products that might have lower prices.
Lenovo stressed that the program did not “monitor user behavior” or record user information.
"The relationship with Superfish is not financially significant; our goal was to enhance the experience for users," the company said in a statement. "We recognize that the software did not meet that goal and have acted quickly and decisively."
To be completely safe, experts usually advise that users reinstall a fresh new operating system. Lenovo customers have already paid for Windows in their laptops, so they will have to shell out another $120 for a copy of Windows 8.1.
I don’t have a Lenove computer but I’ve noticed that If I go to amazon and start checking prices on a product, lets say running shoes, and check out several brands of running shoes when I’m finished and start going to other web sites I frequent I start seeing advertisements for running shoes virtually everywhere I go. This happens virtually every time I shop for a product on Amazon.
I think you’re missing the point. Lenovo (the company) is based in and owned by the government of the Peoples’ Republic of China. It has a bad reputation for putting various sorts of spyware on and in its computers.
Cookies, tracking cookies.
Websites make their money (except FReerepublic, of course)via advertising.
It’s normal.
Lenovo are Chinese pcs.
This kind of crap was warned of, repeatedly, before IBM sold their pc business to Lenovo.
Excellent book
I hear they come off the Chinese factories with malware installed
Not true. All you have to do is use something like Belarc Adviser (free at http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) to extract your software key so you can reinstall the operating system using your current legal key.
Then you go to Microsoft's site and download the ISO image of your version of Windows, burn it to a CD/DVD and install.
http://www.howtogeek.com/186775/how-to-download-windows-7-8-and-8.1-installation-media-legally/
back then CPU time was more expensive compared to now
While I would never trust anything made by Lenovo, they aren’t the only company to do stuff like this. I quit buying gateways over a decade ago because they were preloading their computers with a bunch of adware.
The key to being an effective systems administrator is to be able to automate all the anal retentive tasks, and have the automation let you know when something needs looking at.
Do a job well once, and then automate it. And then move onto another task.
I think you are probably talking about this guy’s story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg
The discovery all started when they noticed 9 seconds of CPU usage hadn’t been paid for.
Handy - thanks for that info!
You’re right - the author’s name is Clifford Stoll, not Richard.
sounds like fun.
i’ve used linux off and on professionally since the early to mid 90s.
bing er... ping
I admire the folks who can do it well.
I’m not one of them.
Warm-up plan for all computers, by those that have orchestrated Human Being Mortgage Trafficking known as ACA (Extortion-Care). Lock you out of everything on your computer until your Human Mortgage is paid off to their insurance-bank.
To be coordinated with their Trafficking Exchange System.
This is why they want total control of the internet.
Human Trafficking,
Arbeitsziehungslager
Is it a good thing to disable your cookies? If I'm not mistaken, some sites won't allow activity unless you have cookies enabled........
I don’t mind tracking cookies:
Do you access any accounts online? If you do the secure cookie allows you to logon very quickly. If cookies are disabled some sites will not show you content.
In IE you can clear your cookies (and stored webpage data) via - Tools - Delete browsing history.
Happy computing!
Yes I do.....With that being said, I've switched to Mozilla Firefox and have noticed that many products I've viewed online have been showing up as ads on websites I've visited...........
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