Most of have come to terms with the idea that some software come with rather evil components that try to take over Windows systems, or attack others, etc. Usually the software packages that do this are on shaky ground to start with, are fairly easy to avoid. I guess Sony was looking to change all that.
Before you go out and buy another CD read through “Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far“. It seems that the CD “Get Right with the Man” by Van Zant will install a poorly written rootkit on your Windows system. This is bad news, it is becoming increasingly difficult to know who to trust in these matters. Before it was a pretty good rule of thumb that if you only installed software from reputable vendors then you’d be okay. The list of vendors considered reputable seems to be decreasing rapidly.
One reply on “Sony Rootkit For Windows”
[…] Last week I was going through my blogroll and learned about the Sony rootkit debacle from Joseph’s blog. While digging into this some more, I ran across Prof. Ed Felten’s blog, “Freedom to Tinker.” I remembered Felten’s name from earlier (pre-blog) posts on DeCSS, which I found very insightful, so I immediately added it to my blogroll. Looks like there’s a lot of good reading over there, enjoy! [link] […]