Sony CDs Rootkit Your Systems (Bad news)

[Matt Flynn]

This is last week in the tech world, but many Sony CD's secretly rootkit your system. See the links below for a discussion of what that is. It is bad. A rootkit essentially creates an environment "around" your system that the system cannot see. It is invisible to antispyware and other malware detection software. It cannot be tracked by regular means. The Sony malware can easily be exploited by hackers and has already been. It can also screw up your devices and some programs.

Thanks to my buddy Earl, here are some Links:

The blog posting by Mark Russinovich that started the furor in which a
security techie discovers the rootkit. Basically, it's a geek
detective story.

http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/200...al-rights.html


Washington Post picks up the story:

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/secu...aids_hack.html


Slashdot picks up a second Russinovich blog in which he shows the Sony's
DRM phones home.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl...207&tid=10

Why rootkits should be illegal; Malware that exploits Sony's rootkit
appears:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...72&tid=233


Sony's wonderful EULA analyzed:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004145.php


Here's the must read: Bruce Schneir (a big crypto-guy) asks why the
anti-virus didn't detect Sony's DRM rootkit.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archive...drm_rootk.html


Hmmm, the security companies are evidently NOT going to protect you from
malware put out by companies. Also, you do really think that Sony is
the only one doing this?

Enjoy. If you want to test for it, go to http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/ and download their beta-test rootkit detector.

I am putting Sony on a two-year boycott for this. Worse, it looks like I'll have to go Linux once the new Microsoft operating system comes out. Unreal.