Online Computer Tips Home
Home All Tips OCT Newsletter Free Tutorials Tech News Resources

Monday, February 23, 2015

Spyware found in new Lenovo PCs

Posted by David Bernstein


It seems that nowadays the biggest threat to your computer is from spyware that you can get from just about anywhere. Whether it’s from downloading some free software or even visiting certain websites its way to easy to get infected these days. When you buy a new computer you expect it to be perfectly clean and free of spyware for the most part. Of course it will come with all the extra software you don’t really want or need but at least it shouldn’t be stealing your information.

A researcher in the financial services technology industry field named Peter Horne discovered that new Lenovo computers were being shipped with spyware called Superfish which is used to harvest data from a user’s computer via web browser. Horne noticed that data was being redirected from his computer to a website called best-deals-products.com. The point of this spyware is to collect information so it can place ads it thinks you will be interested in on webpages as you are browsing but can also compromise secure sites making it easier for hacker to do their thing with your data.

When confronted about the Superfish spyware Lenovo responded by saying its used “to help customers potentially discover interesting products while shopping.” But shortly after this finding went public in January Lenovo said they stopped including it on their new computer. So if you bought a Lenovo computer between September and December 2014 you most likely have Superfish installed on it.