Sony's Spyware scandal-article

[Nikita]

Although I am sure many have heard about this, some may want to hear more. I found this article and thought perhaps it would be worth sharing. It's about Sony BMG's rootkit, Its story told in 3 parts. A very interesting read. Many are qouted including Kaminsky, Schneier, John Guarino and many more.
Sony's Spyware scandal an overview and commentary.

That's all.

[converge]

hmm..

To Guarino, the files looked like a rootkit -- software that tricks an operating system into overlooking worms, viruses, and any other files a hacker might want to conceal inside a user's computer.

Then, on September 30, he discovered the mysterious files on his own PC. "That's what really pissed me off," Guarino says. "I was like, 'I can't believe it. I have the latest firewall, the latest antivirus software, three or four antispyware programs. How did this get here?'"

Like any good investigator, Guarino backtracked.

..this is starting to read more like a 3 hour special extended criterion edition of Driving Miss Daisy...

But by 1996, when PC manufacturers began to include CD-ROM drives as a standard feature in home computers

[Nikita]

..this is starting to read more like a 3 hour special extended criterion edition of Driving Miss Daisy...

Perhaps for some, It is an epic little read. However we do have ~ dozens of guests on this forum daily who may not be as aware of this as we are. I like to think that those out of the loop could be given a nudge in.

This is a nice conclusion to this thread:
Sony rootkit settlement gets final nod

[converge]

Was commenting more to the style used and less the content; definately a good read for those unfamiliar with the topic. For those interested in further infos, here is a good start. The EFF writeup first listed will give you a quick uptospeed, but be sure to backtrack through similar articles in that timeframe; definately an interesting topic/event.

It's funny that this came up because just the other day I had a friend bring in a bunch of new music to spread around to other NOC monkeys. I waited for them to be circulated and inserted with autorun into personal laptops before mentioning the rootkit... everyone's eyes lit up, completely forgetting about the threat due to time passed. After about 5-10 minutes of them feverishing researching if any of the discs were from that generation of release, we all had a heartwarming discussion of how playing their music in a work PC could lead to compromising the entire network. So I can attest that even many of those that read into this before could probably use a slight refresher ;)

[Nikita]

After about 5-10 minutes of them feverishing researching if any of the discs were from that generation of release, we all had a heartwarming discussion

I can imagine that there wasn't a lot of hugging in the growing pains family fashion. Evil, Pure hysterically funny, Evil.

[jur1st]

I've got a 40 page article as well if anyone is interested...it's a bit heavy on the legal aspect though.

The settlement comes down pretty hard on Sony, as it should. Each customer gets much more than they were originally entitled to under the EULA. While most civil action is resolved by the settlement, there are still suits pending in small claims court and in Texas.