Lenovo Settles FTC Charges it Harmed Consumers With Preinstalled Software on its Laptops that Compro

[Eugene]

Source: Federal Trade Commision

Lenovo Settles FTC Charges it Harmed Consumers With Preinstalled Software on its Laptops that Compromised Online Security

Software used to deliver ads compromised web security features

September 5, 2017

Lenovo Inc., one of the world’s largest computer manufacturers, has agreed to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission and 32 State Attorneys General that the company harmed consumers by pre-loading software on some laptops that compromised security protections in order to deliver ads to consumers.

In its complaint, the FTC charged that beginning in August 2014 Lenovo began selling consumer laptops in the United States that came with a preinstalled “man-in-the-middle” software program called VisualDiscovery that interfered with how a user’s browser interacted with websites and created serious security vulnerabilities.

“Lenovo compromised consumers’ privacy when it preloaded software that could access consumers’ sensitive information without adequate notice or consent to its use,” said Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen. “This conduct is even more serious because the software compromised online security protections that consumers rely on.”

VisualDiscovery software, developed by a company called Superfish, Inc., was installed on hundreds of thousands of Lenovo laptops. It delivered pop-up ads from the company’s retail partners whenever a user’s cursor hovered over a similar looking product on a website.

To deliver its ads, VisualDiscovery acted as a “man-in-the-middle” between consumers’ browsers and the websites they visited, even those websites that were encrypted. Without the consumer’s knowledge or consent, this “man-in-the-middle” technique allowed VisualDiscovery to access all of a consumer’s sensitive personal information transmitted over the Internet, including login credentials, Social Security numbers, medical information, and financial and payment information. While VisualDiscovery collected and transmitted to Superfish’s servers more limited information, such as the websites the user browsed and the consumer’s IP address, Superfish had the ability to collect more information.

To facilitate its display of pop-up ads on encrypted websites (those that include https:// in the web address), the complaint also alleges that VisualDiscovery used an insecure method to replace digital certificates for those websites with its own VisualDiscovery-signed certificates. Digital certificates are used to signal to a user’s browser that the encrypted websites visited by a consumer are authentic and not imposters. VisualDiscovery, however, did not adequately verify that the websites’ digital certificates were valid before replacing them, and used the same, easy-to-crack password on all affected laptops rather than using unique passwords for each laptop.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/09/lenovo-settles-ftc-charges-it-harmed-consumers-preinstalled

______________________________________________________________________

Note: FTC-produced content is in the public domain. Copyright limits don't apply.

[Ron Obvious]

1. This sort of thing is why I always wipe a new laptop

And install a fresh Windows from scratch after writing down the activation code. Most manufacturers are guilty of this and similar practices: craplets, introductory versions, and I've even found malware on new laptops straight from the box.

As it happens, the Lenovo I'm using to type this one was bought in 2013, before this was installed.