Pre-Installed Superfish Software on Lenovo Laptops is Vulnerable to Hacking

It's almost a perfect world when you buy a brand new laptop pre-configured with the latest and greatest security software preparing you to surf on the high seas we know as the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, that perfect world is just a pipe dream for those select few who have encountered pre-installed software on some new Lenovo laptops that makes the device vulnerable to hacking and cybersecurity issues.

China's Lenovo Group Ltd is currently touted as the world's largest PC maker. A number of users who purchased Lenovo consumer laptops are having some serious concerns over a program called Superfish, known as a questionable adware application. The Superfish program was preinstalled on several Lenovo laptops that was found to hijacks and opens up encrypted connections that may allow hackers to infiltrate the affected computers.

We have always been abreast of the latest malware threats that conduct malicious activities, such as allowing remote attackers to gain access to an infected computer. Usually, such malicious software that causes this to take place is either obtained from the internet or some spam email attachment. It is very rarely that the culprit is preinstalled on a computer by the system's manufacturer. Of course, in this latest discovery of the Superfish program, installed on Lenovo systems that are configured with Windows, there lies a flaw within the Lenovo company with bundled software they choose for new systems.

Bundled software has long been an expected nature of store-purchased computers. Such systems are mostly bundled with software that attempts to assist you with your day-to-day computer activities, or some could be trial versions of software includes an agreement with the system's manufacturer. Either way, it was an apparent negligence on the part of Lenovo by installing Superfish, a program that can intercept web traffic to insert advertisements that may potentially hide connections to hackers.

Cybersecurity issues have loomed over Chinese firms for a long time. With Lenovo being the latest to join the rankings of Chinese companies being careless when it comes to cybersecurity, it draws a contrast to how other computer makers and industries in that field are running their business. With Lenovo being such a huge entity in the personal computer market, it begs us to wonder if the next computer that you buy will be "safe" enough to connect to the internet with the fear of it being attacked by a remote hacker.

Since the discovery of the Superfish malware on Lenovo consumer laptops, an administrator from the company's official web forum stated that Superfish has been temporarily removed from consumer computers. The company also says that Superfish was shipped on its notebook computers between September and December of 2014 and has stopped all preloading of the software.