In the previous week, it was found that Lenovo’s consumer grades laptops were facing a severe security problem due to the Superfish software pre-installed by the manufacturer.
As a solution to this vulnerability, Lenovo soon released an automatic removal tool for its customers. Moreover, now even Microsoft has dived in to resolve this issue.
Microsoft has provided with an update in its Windows Defender software, which can identify the adware and remove it. The information about this security update was found by a security professional on Twitter.
Basically, Superfish is a type of software, which adds different types of adverts in your web browser while surfing through the Internet. This software known as Superfish Visual Discovery was found to be pre-installed on Lenovo products since past two years. This software was found to be pushing ads in Google search results and websites that helped users find and discover products visually.
In spite of being annoying, these adverts are basically harmless for the laptop device. However, this vulnerability allowed hackers to dispatch a man-in-the-middle attack and possibly acquire data from the victim’s internet connection. Researchers confirmed that hackers on the same network, such as an open Wi-Fi hot-spot at a coffee shop, can exploit Superfish to steal important data like your banking login details or to read your emails.
According to the latest news, Lenovo has now stopped pre-loading the Superfish software since January 2015. On the other hand, millions of Lenovo laptops have already been shipped with Superfish pre-installed on them, which is likely to impact Internet Explorer and Google Chrome browsers running on those laptops.
Nevertheless, a security update released by Microsoft in Windows defender makes it easy to overcome this issue. Windows defender is a security software providing protection against spyware and unwanted softwares.
It is easier to run it on Windows 7 with a relatively simpler working process and it comes inbuilt with Windows 8. It can be used at anytime to scan for malware, if you find your computer is not working properly.
Lenovo users using Windows 7 or Windows Vista and encountering the Superfish vulnerability can download Windows Defender from the link given below:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/mmpc/products/default.aspx
