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In the mid -2000s, buying records was still common. Insert them on the computer was part of the day to day, especially to listen to music or pass it to the player. But what seemed like a harmless action ended up being the entrance door to one of the biggest computer security scandals in the domestic sphere. The most disconcerting is that it did not come from a cybercrime, but from one of the most powerful music companies in the world.
In the new episode of Xataka presents published on YouTubeone of our colleagues reconstructs the case of Sony BMG rootkit, a failed attempt to stop piracy that ended up violating the safety of thousands of computers. “When you put the album on your computer, the program was installed in secret and stored in a hidden folder so that you did not suppose its existence or noticese that I was doing things in the team.”
The key was in the concept “rootkit”, a technique normally associated with the most sophisticated malware. “A rootkit is a program that is installed on your computer and that can execute Administrator permits. Come on, a type of malware designed to have access to your operating system, hide your own activity and access the device remote control. ”Sony hid that rootkit deliberately.
On October 31, 2005, cybersecurity expert Mark Russinovich published on his blog that he had discovered “a spy program that secretly settled on his computer.” He explained that this software “was used to spy on users, their listening habits, share that information with Sony and prevent third -party audio programs from reading the album.” And not only that: “He had realized that there was no way to uninstall him, that he could damage the equipment of the users,” but hid even more problems that we will discover in the video.
When the uninstalians appeared on the scene, things did not necessarily go better. There was a problem: if you filled a form to download the program that would allegedly free you from Sony’s rootkit nightmare, your browser could be exposed. “If you later entered other websites, from any of them They could access your computer”Explains our partner.
The case ended in the courts and, of course, reached a huge media impact. What happened to the Japanese giant? Did you end up paying the consequences? And what happened to the affected users? You will find all this in the video. So we invite you to give the play to know the full story, because the risks do not always come from suspicious downloads, but from legitimate sources.
And if you are interested in other stories about cybersecurity, we invite you to Read the article and watch the video about Bonzibuddythe spyware camouflaged in Windows, as well as When we should change all our passwords and if It is useful to have antivirus today.
Images | Arthur a
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