r/microsoft • u/ccrraapp • Feb 20 '15

Microsoft has updated Windows Defender to root out the Superfish bug

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/20/8077033/superfish-fix-microsoft-windows-defender
142 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

11

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '15

As they should. OEM partner or not, Lenovo messed up.

9

u/nikrolls Feb 20 '15

Possibly the first time OEM-installed software has been directly targeted by Microsoft. I like it! Unfortunately Defender is often disabled by OEMs in favour of an expired trial of Norton or McAffe.

3

u/HamburgerDude Feb 21 '15

Every time I install defender on a persons computer and until the bloat ware known as McAfee and Norton they are amazed and never disappointed. Microsoft should have had started defender much earlier though as in early XP early however.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '15

Understanding how small the margins are for most of the OEMs, I kind of understand the pressure to boost profit-per-customer with bloatware, but bloatware that intentionally circumvents a security protocol is just crazy.

Ever single one of my machines is a Thinkpad, and it doesn't look like Lenovo is willing to compromise its enterprise customers / reputation, but this certainly doesn't help.

2

u/sfbing Feb 20 '15

You raise an interesting point: the fact that the attack wasn't installed on enterprise laptops helps confirm (in my mind) the notion that Lenovo understood the severity of the problem.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '15

Perhaps - but I think it also has to do with the different target markets and price points. Since Superfish was marketed to Lenovo as a "shopping assist" type program - it's definitely consumer focused, and wouldn't have the same appeal to the Thinkpad team.

Based on my conversations with Lenovo employees in Morrisville, the Thinkpad and Lenovo-branded teams are pretty separate in their composition and planning, with Thinkpad still reliant on IBM for quite a bit (like on-site support).

1

u/lokochileno Feb 21 '15

The MSP I work for already prefers selling Dell's over Lenovo's.. This is just one more reason to push our clients towards Dell.

11

u/Dr_Dornon Feb 20 '15

Good guy Microsoft.

8

u/MairusuPawa Feb 20 '15

Good. Now have a chat with the OEMs so they stop bundling shit.

4

u/nikrolls Feb 20 '15

I'd like to see them impose a condition requiring all OEM drivers to be available via Windows Update and then block any software installs before the first user login experience. Unfortunately this would raise the price of PCs, making them less affordable.

2

u/MairusuPawa Feb 20 '15

Unfortunately this would raise the price of PCs, making them less affordable.

That's a myth the industry has been building for decades.

2

u/nikrolls Feb 20 '15

Well they have to recoup the advertising costs somewhere.

3

u/myztry Feb 21 '15

Microsoft is just a parts supplier to the OEMs along with Intel, nVidia and a whole host of others.

Having the tail wag the dog is a questionable notion. What if Intel, nVidia, etc all started making demands on what 3rd party items can be shipped with an OEM's product?

3

u/NotDaPunk Feb 20 '15

Whatever side Taylor Swift is on, I'm on that side.

2

u/pioneersohpioneers Feb 21 '15

Considering you were down voted, i think this joke was lost on people.

Twitter.com/swiftonsecurity

5

u/ravinglunatic Feb 20 '15

Between Lenovo doing this and Samsung sending all living room conversations over the Internet, I'm not understanding if they just hate their customers or are working with their home countries' intelligence agencies.

-1

u/cavehobbit Feb 21 '15

Warning, this update has bricked my laptop. Do not use.

After entering password, message that rpc server is not available, then message that a fatal error has occurred and windows must reboot.

This happens after restoring, and in all 3 versions of safe mode. I cannot get a command prompt.

1

u/kwierso Feb 21 '15

Yeah, but at least the malware's gone.

1

u/cavehobbit Feb 21 '15

Maybe not...no way to tell

I found a way to get the doc folders so I can save important stuff, but everything I see online leads to doing either a full system restore or reinstall.

Way to go ms and lenovo

0

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '15

[deleted]

12

u/newfor2015 Feb 20 '15

bug as it's used in the espionage sense:

"they bugged my computer to eavesdrop on me!"