The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has advised Chinese laptop maker Lenovo Group to stop installing the Superfish adware on its computers, saying it makes those computers vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Superfish, developed by Israel-based Komodia, has been installed on all computers by Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, since 2010. The software introduces vulnerabilities in the way it collects data to serve up ads, and security experts warn it could easily be co-opted to steal user data outright.
Lenovo has denied that Superfish monitors user behavior or records any data, though it is clear that the vulnerabilities it introduces, including a self-signed certificate, could be used to do so.
Lenovo has offered a removal tool on its website as well as instructions to manually remove Superfish from a computer, which users are urged to do. Superfish is Windows exclusive, so consumers who have bought Lenovo laptops but are not running Windows on them are not impacted.
Is there any piece of electronics that isn't bugged by israel?
The problem with that software is not well described above: It opens up any encrypted connection between the browser and the remote server (e.g. you bank) and inserts itself into the middle in order to server ads. So you are not connected to your bank, you are connected to the Komodia software running on your Lenovo PC, and the Komodia software connects to your bank (this is well hidden and invisible to the casual user) Once someone takes over the Komodia software, it is game over.
Just couldn't resist taking a gratuitous stab at Israel, I guess.
Life is short — Why be an appendage to the next man more intelligent?
The fact that planet earth is an absolute top-down intelligence dictatorship, one that has our working-class enslaved from birth to death, this is nowhere more self-evident then in the computer industry.
And unless we organize in a big way, taking control of both industry and government, then at the mercy of those who have no mercy shall be our downfall.
El Tonno — “It opens up any encrypted connection…”
That is until maybe tomorrow, when it is completely redesigned by the manufacture and turns your computer into a monster hell-bent on destroying your life.
And that is why we need to take the deadly force of government out of the hands of the corporate rich, as it would make them powerless to force their will upon us.
"Komodia"
An appropriate name.