New Sony 'Rootkit' Found On USB Flash Drive
You may recall that in the not-too-distant past, Sony came under fire for including rootkit-like DRM (digital rights management) software on their music CD's. Users were angry that Sony installed software without their authorization, and it was discovered that the rootkit software exposed the computer to exploits and provided a potential mechanism for attackers to leverage to hide their malware.
Sony removed the offending software and issued an apology, but apparently hasn't given up entirely on the practice. F-Secure does provide a comparison of the two rootkits in which they explain why this USB flash drive rootkit is not as serious of a threat as the previous music CD DRM rootkit was. Nevertheless, the new rootkit software can still be exploited by attackers in much the same way as the previous rootkit could. It is also yet another example of Sony showing a lack of integrity and failing to fully disclose what exactly they are installing on their customers' computers.
Comments
And I thought Sony was such a good company - I know I’m not buying any more sony products again
Are you kidding? Sony has always been a crappy company. When they’re not creating rootkits to provide backdoors for script kiddies and crackers to hijack your system they’re shooting themselves in the foot selling you hardware that will only work with their proprietary media. Remember Betamax? Memorysticks? and I can’t even remember that stupid optical media that lasted like 6 months! They get greedy and sell you a camera that only takes memorysticks when everyone else uses SD?
Crappy company–crappy electronics–crappy ethics.