17th November, 2005
Rootkit
Most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?
- Thomas Hesse, global digital business president at Sony BMG
Yeah, I know that quote has been everywhere on the web recently, but hey, I’m a quote whore. There’s a good article at Wired today that summarizes the debacle surrounding Sony BMG’s latest “anti-piracy solution”. You know, the one that installed rootkits on an estimated half-a-million PCs and opened gaping security holes that virus writers have happily exploited. Yeah, that one. The main gist of the article, however, isn’t about Sony BMG’s major screw-up and its atrocious lack of concern and accountability for its actions – that topic has been beaten to death already – instead it raises the very valid question of where have the anti-virus/security companies been during all this? Remarkably silent, it seems. Apparently they are afraid of stepping on the toes of a large corporation and as such, have done essentially nothing to address this major security issue. If the anti-virus companies are afraid or unwilling to protect our computers from malicious code simply because it was created by a corporation and not some “hacker”, then why exactly are we giving them our money?
Posted at 6:17 am | Comment (0)
