* Screw Sony *
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/14/sony_anticustomer_te.html
Please read the above link. Boing Boing has assembled a great ongoing history of this craptacular event over time.
For those wanting Cliff Notes, here's a breakdown of the situation:
Sony made a program (rootkit) that installs itself WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT when you use one of their CDs. This program proceeds to hide itself from virus scanning programs and basically acts as a sort of anti-piracy program so you can't illegal copy your CD.
This alone is a bit unethical, not to mention possibly illegal since you receive no notification. But it gets better.
You see, this ability to create a COMPUTER BLIND SPOT can easily be exploited by any malicious program designed to do so. For example, World of Warcraft cheat writers can use this "blind spot" to hide themselves from Blizzards own scanning program (a dubious program in and of itself). But furthermore, spyware, viruses -- any malware can use it to hide from your own computer and turn your computer into a virus-spewing zombie machine.
Getting nauseous yet? I'm not done.
The FIX that Sony gave out actually creates an even BIGGER security vulnerability on your machine. Microsoft has gone so far as including Sony's rootkit in it's next list of spyware scanning. Government and military computers have been infected by this -- over half a MILLION different networks.
--
Why am I so pissed about this? Well, does any of this sound familiar?
That's right, Sony and the RIAA have been fighting good and hard against peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs for a long, long time, getting as nasty as they can. One of their screeds specifically stated the "risks" of installing a file-sharing program, stating that these programs could install piggybacked spyware and other nefarious programs on your computer, opening it to security risks.
Well Sony, congrats! You managed to describe your own program perfectly! And YOU did it intentionally, and THEN tried to hide it!
Screw you, Sony!
Please read the above link. Boing Boing has assembled a great ongoing history of this craptacular event over time.
For those wanting Cliff Notes, here's a breakdown of the situation:
Sony made a program (rootkit) that installs itself WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT when you use one of their CDs. This program proceeds to hide itself from virus scanning programs and basically acts as a sort of anti-piracy program so you can't illegal copy your CD.
This alone is a bit unethical, not to mention possibly illegal since you receive no notification. But it gets better.
You see, this ability to create a COMPUTER BLIND SPOT can easily be exploited by any malicious program designed to do so. For example, World of Warcraft cheat writers can use this "blind spot" to hide themselves from Blizzards own scanning program (a dubious program in and of itself). But furthermore, spyware, viruses -- any malware can use it to hide from your own computer and turn your computer into a virus-spewing zombie machine.
Getting nauseous yet? I'm not done.
The FIX that Sony gave out actually creates an even BIGGER security vulnerability on your machine. Microsoft has gone so far as including Sony's rootkit in it's next list of spyware scanning. Government and military computers have been infected by this -- over half a MILLION different networks.
--
Why am I so pissed about this? Well, does any of this sound familiar?
That's right, Sony and the RIAA have been fighting good and hard against peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs for a long, long time, getting as nasty as they can. One of their screeds specifically stated the "risks" of installing a file-sharing program, stating that these programs could install piggybacked spyware and other nefarious programs on your computer, opening it to security risks.
Well Sony, congrats! You managed to describe your own program perfectly! And YOU did it intentionally, and THEN tried to hide it!
Screw you, Sony!