PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
The Lenovo China website has been hacked following the Superfish bloatware story last week.
Hacker group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the cyber attack, reports the BBC.
"One effect of this attack was to redirect traffic from the Lenovo website," said Lenovo in a statement. "We are also actively investigating other aspects. We are responding and have already restored certain functionality to our public-facing website."
The company behind some of the Superfish ‘SSL Digestor’ tech, Komodia, also said it was hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack due to “recent media attention”.
Barak Weichselbaum, Komodia’s founder, told Forbes: "Regarding the Lenovo Superfish story I’m unable to comment because of contractual reasons."
PC maker Lenovo has come under fire of late over a Superfish adware programme that comes pre-installed on some of the firm’s consumer devices. It works by helping users find the cheapest products when shopping online by analysing pictures.
However, experts warned it was a security risk, prompting Lenovo to remove Superfish from future devices, and contact customers to help them remove the adware.
Lenovo also said it is ‘actively reviewing’ its network security.
Last week Lenovo provided a manual fix and an automated removal tool to help its customers remove Superfish and related files.
Further reading
Following the initial story, Lenovo has explained itself and a US customer is now suing both Lenovo and Superfish. Lenovo’s CTO Peter Hortensius has also written an open letter to customers.
Novatech’s former marketing manager wrote an opinion piece for PCR on the issue: The Lenovo Superfish issue is a loud warning for the whole industry.
