No matter which internet page you open this days you are guaranteed to find at least one article mentioning the Sony rootkit affair. Instead of providing you with the latest news on the case customer vs. Sony BMG I´d like to analyse an interesting aspect of it.

In the beginning, there was one guy, who found out about the rootkit software, analysed it in depth and wrote an entry in his blog named Mark’s Sysinternals Blog on a well frequented site. Then the ball got rolling, the news was copied and commented on other sites, big portals like slashdot.org and digg.com had articles that soon became the most popular ones for the day.

Tags: rootkits, sony
Categories: Spyware

This article explains it all. It provides links to consumer made cd listings that contain the rootkit software, shows how cds with the rootkit software look like, explains how one can check his personal computer for the rootkit and finally gives a detailed walkthrough on how to remove the rootkit software manually from your computer.

Tags: drm, rootkits, sony
Categories: Spyware

After lots of controversy about their rootkit music cds Sony announced today that it will halt the production of rootkit music cds. It seems that consumer and media backlash finally paid off.

Tags: drm, rootkits, sony
Categories: Spyware

The first trojan using Sony´s rootkit software to hide itself has been discovered by anti-virus companies.

Tags: sony, sony drm, trojan
Categories: Spyware

The news spread like fire last week: Sony has a installer on some of their music cd´s that might install a rootkit on customers pc´s if they put them into their personal computer. The rootkit software could not be uninstalled by normal means and has already been used by hackers to hide World of Warcraft cheat scripts from being detected by Blizzards Warden client.

Tags: drm, rootkits, sony
Categories: Spyware

It has come to our attention that World of Warcraft Hackers already are using Sonys Rootkit Software to hide their hacking from Blizzards Warden Client.
We reported earlier this week that some Music Cds by Sony labeled “Content enhanced & protected” would bring up an installation program when the music cd was put into a personal computer.

Tags: bmg, rootkits, sony, world-of-warcraft
Categories: Spyware

News.com reports that Sony BMG Music Entertainment will provide a patch for the software that could be installed on computers when a Music Cd is put into a cd or dvd drive. The software as is could be used by virus writers to hide software from antivirus software when the program from the music cd was installed on the home computer.

Tags: copy-protection, sony, Spyware
Categories: Spyware