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Chinese computer and smartphone firm Lenovo Group said its website was hacked on Wednesday, its second security blemish days after the U.S. government advised consumers to remove software called “Superfish” pre-installed on its laptops. Hacking group Lizard Squad claimed credit for the attacks on microblogging service Twitter. Lenovo said attackers breached the domain name system associated with Lenovo and redirected visitors to lenovo.com to another address, while also intercepting internal company emails. Lizard Squad posted an email exchange between Lenovo employees discussing Superfish. The software was at the centre of public uproar in the United States last week when security...

The Internet is lighting up with warnings about Superfish, an adware program that came preinstalled on many Lenovo laptops in the past six months. Like a lot of the bloatware that comes on new computers, Superfish exists to help push advertising, not to serve any real consumer need. That would be annoying enough, but Superfish seriously undermines the user's safety, according to many security experts. Superfish is a piece of third-party software that Lenovo installed to, as it says in its apology to consumers, “enhance the shopping experience.” That means it's meant to help advertisers target potential customers. But security...

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,...

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — Thousands of IBM workers in China - some carrying banners describing IBM as a "Sweat Shop" and "We are not merchandise" and many wearing blue lab coats - launched protests Monday that continued Tuesday in reaction to layoffs and the sale of IBM's low-end server business to Lenovo. Unlike at the Research Triangle Park complex where layoffs spark little if any public protest, including layoffs that started last week, the IBM facility in Shenzhen City was blocked with hundreds of protesters gathered at the entrance. Shenzhen is a major city in southern China located near...

Good evening, I'm seeking your opinion/advice on these two laptops. If given the choice which would you choose and why? Our child has been given a gift: a Dell 11.6, but we may be able to exchange it for the Lenovo. I'm just wondering whether or not it would be worth the exchange. I'm inclined to think it is, but trading one for the other presents a little bit of a challenge. We must travel out of state in order to exchange the laptop. I'm wondering if it would be worth the wait and travel. Thank you, as always, for...

Serial number tag does not match the serial number in bios. I just bought a used Lenovo Thinkpad off eBay. Received it yesterday and I noticed the serial number tag on the bottom was a little torn. No concern to me, at least at first. I also ran the s/n from the tag to see if it had any warranty time left on it. The s/n on the tag shows the warranty expired in 2011. Okay, as wthis as expected. So, I was checking the system out to ensure it was okay, the settings were correct, and I noticed the...

Amid a global slump in personal computer sales, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has relinquished its position as the world's biggest PC seller for the first time in five years, one research firm reported Wednesday, while another had the Palo Alto technology giant clinging to the top spot. The bad news for HP was compounded by an additional report Wednesday that PC shipments from computer makers for the year would likely shrink about 1 percent, with the last such drop recorded during the dot-com bust of 2001. "HP has given up the PC vendor position for the first time since the third quarter...

My daughter a HS Junior is doing really well in school. I am planning to buy her a new laptop for school. She currently has a Dell 13" XPS that has been ok, but the battery has been replaced twice, the CD/DVD will currently only play CDs and it is getting slower to start up. So I start looking and I know she wants a Mac because they are cool, I however am not a Mac fan. Not that there is anything wrong with Mac, I have a slowly dying PowerMac G5 Dual that has a nice monitor I use...

Over the past year, US citizens have become increasingly aware of the substandard consumer-level goods flowing out of China, but new reports indicate that the counterfeit products and dubious quality controls are not confined to the consumer sector. An increasingly large number of supposedly military-grade electronic components are turning out to be counterfeit commercial-grade hardware that, in some cases, is decades older than the manufacturing label indicates. The problem, to be sure, is not entirely China's fault. Back in 1994 and 1996, the Clinton Administration passed two bills, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (1994), and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996...

AP story via Fox News. Link only Link

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today's hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory -- pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam. ADVERTISEMENT Computer users have been warned for years about virus threats from downloading Internet porn and opening suspicious e-mail attachments. Now they run the risk of picking up a digital infection just by plugging a new gizmo into their PCs. Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include some of the most widely used tech devices: Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by...

An aggressive, non-stop campaign by China to penetrate key government and industry databases in the United States already has succeeded and the United States urgently needs to monitor all internet traffic to critical government and private-sector networks “to find the enemy within,” SANS Institute Director of Research Alan Paller told SCMagazineUS.com. “They are already in and we have to find them,” Paller said. Paller said that empirical evidence analyzed by researchers leaves little doubt that the Chinese government has mounted a non-stop, well-financed attack to breach key national security and industry databases, adding that it is likely that this effort...

Last year I wrote a series of columns on management problems at IBM Global Services, explaining how the executive ranks from CEO Sam Palmisano on down were losing touch with reality, bidding contracts too low to make a profit then mismanaging them in an attempt to make a profit anyway, often to the detriment of IBM customers. Those columns and the reaction they created within the ranks at IBM showed just how bad things had become. Well they just got worse. This is according to my many friends at Big Blue, who believe they are about to undergo the biggest...

"The similarities are almost eerie. This year, readers gave us the lowdown on over 13,000 desktop PCs—enough data to rate eight of the country's leading brands. And the final tally looks an awful lot like last year's survey results," Cade Metz reports for PC Magazine on "The 19th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey." Metz reports, "This year, you diehard PC Mag readers detailed your experiences with nearly 20,000 PCs (notebooks and desktops) and more than 6,500 printers (from mono lasers to color ink jet all-in-ones). And what you say about the leading manufacturers isn't always what we'd expect. No big...

On August 4th, we found out that Lenovo Group, the company that has taken over IBM's Personal Computing Division, had made a deal with Novell Inc. to preload SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) on its ThinkPad T60p mobile workstation. For the first time, a major OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has committed to preloading a Linux desktop.

The US State Department has backed down on a controversial decision to install computers made by Chinese company Lenovo on its classified networks, officials said. But the department's purchase of about 16,000 personal computers (PCs) from Lenovo raises serious questions given accusations that China is aggressively spying on the United States, Republican lawmaker Frank Wolf said.

After having finally acquired IBM’s ThinkPad division, Lenovo has not really had an impressive ride thus far, and not without reason. There was a reason why ThinkPad was so successful (legendary reliability with support from one of the world’s largest technology companies). Users trusted IBM. In fact, they still do and that is one of the prime reasons that even though Lenovo has bought over the brand, nowhere on a ThinkPad does it say Lenovo. Despite the overall poor performance, Lenovo has still not gained the mindshare or the respect that the ThinkPads command. In fact, it has, to some...

The USCC launched a probe against Lenovo, but many wonder if the accusations are warranted The United States government is planning to spend roughly $13M USD on computers from Lenovo. The company, famous for buying up IBM's PC manufacturing arm, is working on a deal with the US government to produce roughly 16,000 computers. Just recently, the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission (USCC) has requested that Lenovo be probed for any concerns about possible spying, eavesdropping or worse. The supposed problem presented by the USCC is that the 16,000 computers are being built by a Chinese-mainland company. The USCC argues...

A US agency is calling for an official probe into Chinese computer firm Lenovo's contract to supply 15,000 computers to the US State Department. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said it feared the PCs could be fitted with bugging devices to spy on the US government. Lenovo, which last year bought IBM's PC arm, said it had nothing to hide and would welcome the investigation. Concern has been rising in the US over foreign companies buying US firms. Political opposition Earlier this month United Arab Emirates-based docks company Dubai Ports World was forced to announce that it...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's Lenovo Group said on Friday it would welcome a U.S. investigation, if necessary, to quell concerns about a State Department order of more than 15,000 of its computers. "We have nothing to hide," said Jeff Carlisle, vice president of government relations for Lenovo, which bought IBM's personal computer division last May. But he said no investigation was warranted and voiced qualms about being put at an unfair competitive advantage. The computers in question -- 15,000 Lenovo ThinkCentre 51 desktop units and nearly 1,000 Lenovo ThinkCentre M51 minitower units, valued at more than $13 million -- were...