Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday February 21 2015, @03:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the fishing-for-answers dept.

Reuters reports that the US Department of Homeland Security has advised Lenovo customers to remove "Superfish" software from their computers. According to an alert released through its National Cyber Awareness System, the software makes users vulnerable to SSL spoofing and could allow a remote attacker to read encrypted web browser traffic, spoof websites, and perform other attacks on Lenovo PCs with the software installed.

Lenovo inititally said it stopped shipping the software because of complaints about features, not a security vulnerability. "We have thoroughly investigated this technology and do not find any evidence to substantiate security concerns," the company said in a statement to Reuters early on Thursday. On Friday, Lenovo spokesman Brion Tingler said the company's initial findings were flawed and that it was now advising customers to remove the software and providing instructions for uninstalling "Superfish". "We should have known about this sooner," Tingler said in an email. "And if we could go back, we never would have installed this software on our machines. But we can't, so we are dealing with this head on."

[Editor's Note: For background information on this threat, Ars Technica has coverage here, here, here, and here.]

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 21 2015, @06:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 21 2015, @06:03PM (#147825)

    I'm in the US, and your car analogy is spot on.

    My Toyota had 5 recalls last year. Toyota decided to only fix two of them (one that causes the airbags to not deploy, and one that causes the front seats to come free of the floor in an accident-- nice combo). One of the ones they decided not to fix unless it is already broken / breaks before 100K miles is a bolt that holds the suspension together. Presumably, our government was OK with this decision.

    We *are* a capitalist country. That is the problem. Capital has complete control of *everything* in this country. There is a silly ritual of voting for pre-selected (by money) candidates periodically, but it is all sham. The U.S. elite have achieved Mussolini’s ideal of fascism.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +5  
       Interesting=2, Informative=3, Total=5
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5