SONY installs malware on your computer

Sony installs rootkit on your computer when you use some of their CDs with built-in copy-protection. By doing so, it exposes your computer to danger as the rootkits hides files with specific filenames, allowing viruses to exploit this and make themselves undetectable by many anti-virus software. This is discovered by Mark Russinovich and first reported in his blog. It is subsequently reported by BBC, The Inquirer and the Washinton Post.

In order to prevent rootkits from installing on your computer, if you are using Windows Operating System, it would be best to disable autorun of your CD/DVD drives. This prevents the creators of CD/DVDs to make your computer run programs just by your insertion of the disc. While autorun is a useful feature, it can be exploited by virus makers to run code without your knowledge. Annoyances.org has an article on how to disable autorun. If you have no experience in editing the registry, my recommendation will be to install TweakUI.

Technorati Tags: computer security, DRM, malware