If you play audio CDs on your computer...

[Ned]

you need to read this: http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/ about Sony's attempt at digital rights management that puts your computer at risk.  For a less technical discussion of the risks Sony has created read http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1880543,00.asp

 

[John From Detroit]

Sony is not the only one.... There is an article on one of the PC magazines that sites another company doing the same thing

Personally... If any company installs software such as a RootKit on my computer and I find out about it

I will be calling a very good lawyer and notifying the authorites... That is a criminal act and the company responsible should be held both accountable in criminal court and liable in cival court... The damages could easily bankrupt a smaller company

Might be a bit of a pain for Sony

 

[Ned]

Sony is not the only one.... There is an article on one of the PC magazines that sites another company doing the same thing
Might be a bit of a pain for Sony

Not the first, but certainly the worst case.  The backlash that's building does not bode well for Sony.  What Sony did opens you computer to other invasive malware that can't be detected by ordinary means.

 

[Chet18013]

Aparently SONY didn't do their homework. They are now offering a free download kit to remove any effects of the ROOTKIT. See:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2112

and

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5928608.html


Chet18013

 

[Ned]

They claim it removes the rootkit, but that hasn't been verified as yet.  I don't trust them at all.

 

[Karl]

Sysinternals has a free rootkit revealer. Go here: http://www.sysinternals.com/SecurityUtilities.html and download the program RootkitRevealer v1.56

 

[Chet18013]

Sysinternals has a free rootkit revealer. Go here: http://www.sysinternals.com/SecurityUtilities.html and download the program RootkitRevealer v1.56

I'd say their program still needs some work. It said 16,000+ files on my system had discrepancies---all were NIKON raw picture files taken on our trips.  No ROOTKIT there.

Chet18013

 

[Karl]

Chet18013:

Interesting. I have Nikon RAW files on my system and nothing showed up. Might be worth an email to sysinternals for an explanation. At worst, it showed false positives; better than the other way around

 

[Ned]

Or you have 16000+ rootkits