$250K: That's what Lenovo earned to RAT YOU OUT with Superfish

gemini90

Journeyman
$250K: That's what Lenovo earned to RAT YOU OUT with Superfish • The Register

Lenovo bagged a paltry US$250,000 from the deal that saw it install the Superfish certificate slurper onto PCs, according to reports.

The PC maker was last month caught installing the ad/bloat/malware into its consumer PCs, sparking a very considerable backlash once the software's ability to intercept encrypted website communications was revealed.

Forbes sources' now say Lenovo made between US$200,000 to US$250,000 from the deal to pre-install Superfish, a paltry amount given its net profit was US$253 million in the three months to December.

At $250,000 the return on investment for Superfish is abominable: Lenovo initially defended the installation as a helpful tool for online shoppers, but quickly back-pedalled and started wheeling out senior execs at all hours of day and night to make apologetic utterances.

Some users swore off Lenovo kit as the company began scrubbing Superfish, promising to never again install bloatware, and offering free six month subscriptions to McAfee antivirus.

Mozilla, meanwhile, has decided to blast Superfish with its hot lizard breath. The outfit will eradicate self-signed Superfish certificates from the latest version of its Firefox web browser, following through with its initial musings reported by El Reg.

Machines with the adware still installed will not have the certificate removed to ensure access to HTTPS websites is still possible.

The Superfish PR disaster has also snowballed into a lawsuit initiated by Californian woman Jessica Bennett, who filed against Lenovo and Superfish claiming the “malware” injected smut images into her Yoga laptop.
 

$hadow

Geek in making
They are fixing it plus patches are also being released by MS for fixing this but yeah profit making is the main objective of business and they will do whatever they can to make profit which result in consumer privacy invasion.
 

kg11sgbg

Indian Railways - The Vibrant and Moving INDIA
^ If profit making is the sole objective by LENOVO(which is termed as VFM for all!!!???) then what wrong others(manufacturers) have done,who are also reaping profits?
Instead if the privacy or security of a user is compromised by any manufacturer,then what logic does it say to refer that manufacturer every time,just looking at VFM??????
In some cases where you get the Windows-8.1 OS along with the laptop and not primarily DOS,cost will be inevitably higher. Those laptops can't be compared with the aspect of VFM.
No business house big or small are in this world for charity.
 

SaiyanGoku

kamehameha!!
I recommend lenovo for hardware, software part is dependant on the user. He is solely responsible for agreeing/disagreeing to the Terms and Conditions instead of just clicking "I accept" or "ok". :|

If the user wants better security and privacy, he should dump windows and switch to linux.
 

kkn13

Cyber Genius FTW
If Lenovo can be criticized so much,why dont people ever criticize google and Xiaomi ,they also do similar practices with their products and services
^Not justifying the act,just saying its kinda ironic

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I recommend lenovo for hardware, software part is dependant on the user. He is solely responsible for agreeing/disagreeing to the Terms and Conditions instead of just clicking "I accept" or "ok". :|

yeah Lenovo provides great quality and hardware for the price
their laptops are sturdy and feel expensive in hand
 

kg11sgbg

Indian Railways - The Vibrant and Moving INDIA
[MENTION=145143]SaiyanGoku[/MENTION], your point of referring LENOVO for its H/W components is also agreeable by me. It is valid and logical ,but to whom?
Most of the ordinary users those who are not expert like you or other expert friends,will invariably need/require a laptop with an inbuilt OS for their needs and usage,leave alone Linux.How many people use Linux,even today at this year 2015?
Regarding Facebook,it is known by everybody that Facebook has no privacy for users at all. It is the users sharing their common or uncommon interests, discussions,pic., with Public,Friends,Groups,etc... The users are solely responsible for what they are posting on the wall.
In Facebook no great fool or mad will ever share his/her bank,financial details,credit card details or other important data and information,which might be very well stored in a particular file(sometimes encrypted by extreme aware user)onto his PC or Laptop or Tablet.
As per responsibilities of a user,how do you infer that a noob user will know the acceptance terms of any software or apps.(concealing a malware or virus in disguise) which may seem as legitimate to him?????
 

SaiyanGoku

kamehameha!!
If the noob is educated enough to use a laptop, he should be able to atleast read the pop-ups and google what software he is going to install. If want to ignore it, its his fault, not any company's.
As for the OS, everybody will come across a point where they want to re-install it. Why not learn doing it? It'll certainly be good as shops take 250-500 Rs just for that and give us OS acquired from illegitimate sources.

I agree desktop share of linux is very low around 1.53% but it is mainly because of the monopoly of microsoft. Even at college level, most CSE students here know only Ubuntu as linux. Who will you blame? The syllabus, the OEMs who push windows OS with literally every system or the student itself for not searching in google?
 
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kg11sgbg

Indian Railways - The Vibrant and Moving INDIA
^ I am an avid user of Linux besides Windows OS. My Desktop PC has Windows 7 along with Fedora 20,openSUSE-13.2 and Ubuntu-14.04 all in 64-bit at separate partitions.
My DELL (so called crappy and referred as) Laptop also houses 2 OS, one is Windows-8.1 and the other is Mint Linux-17(64-bit) in separate partitions using UEFI mode of booting.
The Public Sector Organization to which I work runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Ver.6).
I am not at all admitting that I am an expert in Linux, but I am always an user in Linux more than an user in Windows.
As for blaming it is the system which encourages Windows Monoply in the market,but at the same time its Human tendency of learning. Though Desktop Linux has evolved and matured much ahead than a decade back,its the learning curve that makes users(particularly noobs or first timers or non-tech. knowledged person) to be acquainted more in Windows than in Linux.
As for the scenario in some cases,Windows is still user friendly compared to Linux.

The point which you are referring Saiyan,that Laptop users seems to be geek is long gone. Budget and value based laptops are purchased by most common humble(financially weak) families also,those who even don't have an awareness about various security and privacy issues,leave about google and various apps. It is the duty of a manufacturer that the machine system(H/W + S/W) which it is providing should not be alleged as spy devices,despite making profits from the buyers.

Regarding "Superfish" software tool/apps., how many expert and geek users knew about the malicious intent and content of the software? Did you know about it beforehand,when the flaw and accusation/whistleblow about "Superfish" is exposed???????????????????????????
Same thing occured with "Heart Bleed" and "Shellshock" software vulnerabilities(apps.) Mostly all of us were ignorant about the serious flaws,until it was whistleblowed and marked as dangerous to the public. But,Techs,Engineers,Experts all went along using them for a long time.

So you can't defend LENOVO to be ignorant and naive ,while putting blame on users and software altogether. LENOVO has a big part of its responsibilty which it can't deny nor ignore at the cost of the buyers + users.
 
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kkn13

Cyber Genius FTW
im just curious,would a fresh install get rid of such programs? or is it locked to bios or something?
certain laptops and phones have it within the bootloader so even changing rom/os dont really make a difference
what is it in this case?
 

SaiyanGoku

kamehameha!!
im just curious,would a fresh install get rid of such programs? or is it locked to bios or something?
certain laptops and phones have it within the bootloader so even changing rom/os dont really make a difference
what is it in this case?

Yeah, a fresh install will rid the machine of all bloatwares pre installed on the laptops which come with Windows OS. A fresh install is recommended just after you've bought the laptop. While laptops with DOS OS will already be free of such programs.

For removing superfish only, there is a guide here:
How to find out if your Lenovo is infected with the Superfish adware and remove it - CNET
 
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mitraark

Decrepit
I just want to know the comments and discussions from our beloved fanboys of LENOVO.

This is not really the place to start a flame war like a bunch of 12 year olds... Lenovo planned to install bloatware ( as do almost all other manufacturers of PC Laptop Mobile etc. ) the spyware part was unknown to them, they are already facing massive losses for this.

And it isn't reflective of their hardware quality or support services in any way.

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I don't think people know about what superfish does when defending lenovo.


No one in their right state of mind would go on defending Lenovo, they have committed a serious mistake and should pay the penalty for it.

The point is many are taking up this chance to go all Brand bashing and Windows bashing

One of the most pointless argument people use is that Linux is safe ... it's safe because no one uses it and no one bothers to make any malicious program for Linux. Once everyone migrates to it, Linux will be much more vulnerable in its current state according to me because you have access to almost every aspect of it, unlike tightly locked Windows.

Going off topic to point out that the protest has gone off topic.
 

$hadow

Geek in making
I have a question for all of you.
How many of you actually read the terms and conditions before installing a software?
 

kkn13

Cyber Genius FTW
I have a question for all of you.
How many of you actually read the terms and conditions before installing a software?

*memeshare.net/memes/16/15329.png
:p :D XD
i dont ,thing is most of them are too long
i have a friend who actually does and he doesnt get invited to lan parties,he takes 3-4 hours to install a game or software and actually takes print outs of the terms and conditions :D
 

$hadow

Geek in making
*memeshare.net/memes/16/15329.png
:p :D XD
i dont ,thing is most of them are too long
i have a friend who actually does and he doesnt get invited to lan parties,he takes 3-4 hours to install a game or software and actually takes print outs of the terms and conditions :D

Now 80% of those terms and conditions are too extreme. And if read clearly you might not even install freeware.
 

kg11sgbg

Indian Railways - The Vibrant and Moving INDIA
This is not really the place to start a flame war like a bunch of 12 year olds... Lenovo planned to install bloatware ( as do almost all other manufacturers of PC Laptop Mobile etc. ) the spyware part was unknown to them, they are already facing massive losses for this.

And it isn't reflective of their hardware quality or support services in any way.

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No one in their right state of mind would go on defending Lenovo, they have committed a serious mistake and should pay the penalty for it.

The point is many are taking up this chance to go all Brand bashing and Windows bashing

One of the most pointless argument people use is that Linux is safe ... it's safe because no one uses it and no one bothers to make any malicious program for Linux. Once everyone migrates to it, Linux will be much more vulnerable in its current state according to me because you have access to almost every aspect of it, unlike tightly locked Windows.

Going off topic to point out that the protest has gone off topic.
Brother you seemed to have lost in the perception of versus attitude ... which I am not remarking. You haven't read the p.s. part of my quoted comment in comment thread #2 of this section.

I am not a 12 year old but nearly 4 times that age,and why should I start a flame war? In fact I do pay attention and like the tech. enriched comments + discussions of our younger brother [MENTION=145143]SaiyanGoku[/MENTION] our beloved Friend [MENTION=159164]$hadow[/MENTION] and others. If you go through the numerous threads,you would find that I have already marked "+1" to both of them along with the others for a helpful,co-operative,logical comment.
Regarding Linux your comments are absolutely true as we are now aware and known to the "ShellShock" bug/flaw which is deemed to be more dangerous than "Heart Bleed" by experts.

LENOVO is undoubtedly best now in terms of Hardware, I had also mentioned the Laptop Mag — Reviews, Buying Guides and Mobile Tech News site,where LENOVO comes to a 2nd position after Apple Inc.
What our friends and brothers suggest for LENOVO is true and no one denies that. But only LENOVO is the best and other brands are crapware is also very illogical and unjustified comment. If a person(very highly talented geek to medium geek to learner to noob) has the requisite amount of money to spend for a gadget,then it is his choice despite taking numerous suggestive ideas from many Friends.
I have no problem for anyone buying a LENOVO Smartphone/Tablet/Hybrid/Laptop, why should I? It is that person's choice. But VFM is not the only sole criterion for purchasing LENOVO products,as it has been suggested(rather imposed) from time to time. My miniscule objection is that part only.
Do you see that I suggest people,to buy only DELL laptops or HP laptops???

What I mean to say is :--->
We give others our word and they are on their own if they do not like our advise. We will keep on helping others :high5:
+1, for this outstanding comment,Friend. Your comment is truly Honoured by me personally.


Why ask for buying advice when you are going to blindly get what you want? :rolleyes:



Saiyan,you are perfectly completing your duties(wise advise + help) for purchase of Laptops/Tablets/etc.
Now if [MENTION=128004]lakhim[/MENTION] , chooses what he bought,it is not your responsibility.
If he is relaxed + happy,let him.
If he regrets + repents, let him.

You should not bother that why he didn't buy a LENOVO laptop or a Laptop based on nvidia 850M GPU.

This is my (Subjective & Personal) thoughts,which I had again & again reiterated on different thread comments for purchasing devices.


Why care about the purchase,when you are not buying it???
 
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