Sony Software Snafu

JAPAN – Music lovers beware. CDs released by Japan’s Sony BMG have been found to contain copy protection software that may allow viruses to hide within a user’s PC. Senior contributing editor for Windows and co-author of Windows Internals, Mark Russinovich, discovered this software on October 31 and revealed the information on his web log that day. The XCP2 software takes root in the operating system when copy protected CDs are played on a computer’s player. Once installed, it monitors the use of the CD and limits the amount of times the CD can be copied. Additionally, it only allows music playback with Sony software. The software does not affect non-Windows PC’s or regular DVD and CD players. CDs from about twenty artists were released with this software, including albums from Cline In, Van Zant and Sarah McLachlan. The licensing agreement does say that a small program would be installed, however, it did not mention that the program would be hidden. Attempts to manually remove the software can disable the CD drive of the PC. Users can obtain instruction to uninstall the program by contacting Sony BMG’s customer support center. The software, developed by First 4 Internet, contains a cloaking feature that hides its presence from the PC’s user. Viruses use this feature to hide in the hard drive and wreak havoc. As of November 15, three “Trojan horse” viruses have been found to be using this method to invade PC’s. These viruses can open a “backdoor” to the PC, allowing hackers to steal personal information, launch attacks on other computers and send spam from the infected computer. The first, the Stinx-E, virus was sent to thousands of British e-mail addresses, with a subject line reading “photo approval”. Once opened, this virus tears down firewalls and gives hackers access to the vulnerable computers. Once news of the viruses reached Sony, they released a statement expressing that they “deeply regretting any disruption that this may have caused”. As of November 11, they have suspended use of the copy protection program as a “precautionary measure”. They also plan to release a patch that will uncloak files hidden by their software. However, this may not be enough. On November 1, Alexander Guerva filed an application in the Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking class action status for a suit against Sony. He is charging that Sony’s actions “constituted fraud, false advertising and trespass and violate state and federal laws barring malware (malicious software) and computer tampering”.