Hazardous software on Lenovo laptops – T-Online

The excitement is high: the leading notebook manufacturers Lenovo pre-installed on many models software that resembles a spying malware suspicious , The anger at the “Superfish Visual Discovery” baptized advertising software brings the Chinese company in distress.

Last year, complained users about a strange ad windows, which always opened when surfing the Internet. Only recently, however, it became clear that it is potentially malicious adware in “Superfish Visual Discovery”. Because the program can be turned into SSL-encrypted Internet connections without the user being aware of it. This is dangerous, for example online banking.

The results of the controversial security expert Robert Graham have further exacerbated the situation. He published the security key and password for the software certificate used by Superfish. Who is in possession of the certificate and password may be affected notebooks that are located on the same network spy (such as the Wi-Fi hotspot of a café).

Adware over 40 notebook models?

According to the increased user complaints and media reports, Lenovo is committed to limit the damage. On a forum, an employee of the company said that the software only values ​​of graphical content of visited web pages to switch relevant ads. A comprehensive analysis of user behavior would not take place because the collected data will be erased when you close your browser.

Since the program did not meet the expectations of users, we’ve taken on new devices from the market, according to an official statement of the company. On computers already sold it will no longer activated. Lenovo released a list with over 40 notebook models , on the critical software have been installed.

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Users of affected Lenovo notebooks should remove the program. These must be uninstalled from the program list in the Control Panel menu the program “Superfish Inc. Visual Discovery”. Then, users must still manually an insecure certificate named “Superfish, Inc.” delete from your computer, which is a significant security risk. How this is done is a detailed guide to the Lenovo Web site.

“Superfish” is found mainly on Lenovo’s consumer models. On the business line of ThinkPads, the program was not installed according to the company. Also, desktop computers and mobile devices, servers and storage should not be affected.