A Security Threat to your Information Privacy and National Security
In 2004, IBM sold its personal computer division to Lenovo. Lenovo is majority-owned by the Chinese Communist government. The U.S. government, while approving the sale of IBM’s PC division to Lenovo, immediately banned Lenovo computers from the Pentagon and government agencies.
In 2015, researchers discovered that Lenovo had installed advertising software (adware) which resulted in spying on customers’ PC usage. The software compromised secure connections between the customers and the Internet sites that they visited. Lenovo’s purpose for this action was to inject advertising on those websites. However, hackers found that they could use the Lenovo software to steal private information. Lenovo finalized an $8.3 million settlement to a class-action lawsuit regarding the use of software from Superfish. Superfish is an advertising company whose programs endangered sensitive data in Lenovo-branded laptops.
Lenovo installed software on its PCs in 2014 and 2015 that incorporated spyware into the system. The Lenovo OneKey Optimizer software was a bloatware package that created multiple security issues on these PCs. The Lenovo Customer Feedback Program was designed to forward daily personal PC usage data to Ominture, an online marketing and web analytics company.
The Lenovo Solution Center allows computer attackers to access your Lenovo PC. The software also allows hackers to access a device on your network to execute malicious code. The Lenovo Solution Center allows a low-privileged user to take control of computer files that are limited to high-privileged (administrator-type) users.
Many Lenovo computers have experienced Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) on newer model ThinkPad models. Lenovo’s fix for this was to disable the Enhanced Windows Biometric Security settings, which resulted in lowering the Windows security on the PCs.
One final reason to avoid Lenovo computers and tablets is provided by the U.S. Department of Defense. The Defense Department’s Joint Staff warned against the use of Lenovo computers and tablets due to spying concerns with Pentagon networks. The DoD Joint Staff published the warning in 2016. In addition, Lenovo has been caught using spyware on its laptops to harvest personal information from Lenovo PCs and tablets sold in the U.S. marketplace.
If you are in need of a new personal computer or tablet, American Computer Solutions can help you get a quality machine at a fair price. Contact ACTS today by calling us at (814) 364-2287 or filling out our contact form.