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.
