Lenovo Offers Free Antivirus Software in Wake of Superfish

[Dima007]

Content source

http://www.wsj.com/articles/lenovo-offers-free-antivirus-software-in-wake-of-superfish-1425054077

BEIJING-- Lenovo Group Ltd. said Friday it will offer customers six months of free antivirus software and cut down on preloaded software on future personal computers in response to criticism for preloading its consumer laptops with adware called Superfish, which made users more vulnerable to hacking.

“The events of last week reinforce the principle that customer experience, security and privacy must be our top priorities,” Lenovo said in a statement. “With this in mind, we will significantly reduce preloaded applications.”

Lenovo said it would offer affected users a six-month subscription to the antivirus software McAfee LiveSafe. It also pledged to post information on all software preloaded onto its computers.

“We are starting immediately, and by the time we launch our Windows 10 products, our standard image will only include the operating system and related software, software required to make hardware work well,” the company said.

Lenovo has come under fire after installing a visual search engine application called Superfish on their laptops over the holiday season that allegedly leaves user's previously encrypted browser data and passwords exposed to online attackers. Photo: Drew Evans/The Wall Street Journal
Lenovo came under criticism last week for preinstalling its consumer laptops with the ad-serving software Superfish that security researchers said made it easier for hackers to access encrypted Web data and even online passwords. The company said last Thursday it stopped shipping computers with the Superfish adware in January and said it wouldn’t preload the software on its products again.

 

[Deleted member 21043]

six-month subscription to the antivirus software McAfee LiveSafe

Haha, they must be kidding. Why not give people subscription to a product like ESET or Emsisoft...

 

[Dani Santos]

Haha, they must be kidding. Why not give people subscription to a product like ESET or Emsisoft...

because thats marketing to people extend the subscription later. Emsisoft and eset dont use that kind of low moves

 

[hjlbx]

McAfee LiveSafe...typical user doesn't know any better so they are apt to think "great, good deal..."

Unfortunately, despite Lenovo's screw-up, they will still come out ahead. Remember, it's all about "saving face."

How about OEM's shipping product with absolutely zero bloatware plus top-shelf AV options - Bit, KIS, Emsi, Eset - and they should do so without making the consumer pay a huge premium as Microsoft does with their "Signature" PCs.

Only then will OEMs ever hope to begin to earn my respect.

Phoooeeee....!

 

[Exterminator]

Wow 6 whole months and for McAfee LiveSafe no less.It comes preloaded with McAfee. How about Lenovo steps up to the plate and offer something worth while.I just purchased a Lenovo laptop in December and the first thing I got rid of was McAfee.Maybe they should follow in Sony's footsteps when the PSN was hacked.Sony offered all PSN members a 1 year subscription to AllClear ID which is still giving me monthly reports on my Identity status.
At least give a 1 year subscription I think Lenovo has some good products but unfortunately they will not get my business again.
@hjlbx hit the nail on the head in that the average user will think they are getting a great deal,in fact the average user probably doesn't even know anything about this or what it even is. Let alone how to get rid of it.

“We are starting immediately, and by the time we launch our Windows 10 products, our standard image will only include the operating system and related software, software required to make hardware work well,” the company said.

A little late. "Software required to make hardware work well"

 

[Oxygen]

Basically they give them a antivirus that is horrible in every way.

 

[Piteko21]

Mcafee liveS... but it's funny that... it also came on my pc but I removed immediately because the machine was slow to get enough
I also read there a few weeks that other companies have also spy software on their computers and that would be to investigate these situations

 

[hjlbx]

My Toshiba came pre-loaded with both Norton and McAfee. Norton was active while McAfee was idle.

Let's put the great Which-is-Best-AV debate aside for a moment.

The bloatware on that new system was simply stupendous...the Metro apps alone would gag any processor...something like 42 or 52 of them - can't remember.

It's all about "product placement" - get the software in front of enough people and at least some of them are just going to run with it and buy add-ons, upgrades, etc.

Total "de-crapification" time: about 2 hours.

 

[Infrared]

Haha, they must be kidding. Why not give people subscription to a product like ESET or Emsisoft...

I was thinking the same exact thing like seriously? lol

 

[jamescv7]

As usual, its always a marketing strategy since McAfee is a huge company (acquired by Intel) therefore it can maximize the capacity to enforce all laptops to be one of preloaded applications.

Actually there's nothing for McAfee but seems there are many alternatives like ESET which a great change to be include on newly laptops.

 

[Raul90]

McAfee..6 months..well if I'm gonna get myself a Lenovo I'll get use the BD promo's here rather than the Lenovo-McAfee! As exterminator20 mentioned "Step-up to the plate" (or get whacked by the bat )