Lenovo has admitted that it installed Superfish adware onto users’ PCs without their explicit permission. It also claims that it will stop such a practice immediately.
But all of those promises weren’t enough to avoid a lawsuit. Lenovo was just slapped with a lawsuit over its dangerous Superfish adware.
That lawsuit charges both Lenovo and Superfish (yes, Superfish is a company) with fraudulent business practices.
Superfish delivered handpicked advertisements to users’ PCs, but it also allowed for its own digital signature verification. This exposed users to a serious security flaw: hackers could infiltrate Superfish and issue digital security certificates to malicious software, tricking users into thinking a software was more legitimate than it actually was.
Court Documents Call Superfish “Spyware”
Fix My PC Free has obtained court documents which propose a class action lawsuit against both companies. Lead plaintiff Jessica Bennett said her laptop was damaged as a result of Superfish and has accused Lenovo and Superfish of invading her privacy and making money by studying her internet browsing habits.
The Lenovo laptops affected by the Superfish problem include most non-ThinkPad laptops, like the G Series, U Series, Y Series, Z Series, S Series, Yoga, E Series, and Miix.
Bennett is a blogger and claims that she purchased her Lenovo laptop to “conduct business” and “communicate with clients.”
Soon after purchasing the laptop, she began to notice “spam advertisements involving scantily clad women.”
These advertisements appeared on a client’s website when writing a blog post. She also saw similar pop-ups appear on other websites, at which point she believed her computer was hacked.
After a bit of searching and scanning, Bennett found that the problem was Superfish, which was actively intercepting secure communications and leaving her computer vulnerable.
To make matters worse, Superfish also significantly slowed down her PC, taking up memory, CPU cycles, and internet bandwidth.
Ultimately, Bennett is seeking unspecified damages from Lenovo and Superfish. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
If your computer is affected by the Superfish problem, then Lenovo has released a free download tool here. Unfortunately for Lenovo, that fix has come too little, too late to avoid a lawsuit.
