Samsung Denies Their Laptops Harbor Keyloggers

A computer security expert has recently reported finding keyloggers on two new Samsung laptop computers.
Mohamed Hassan wrote in Mich Kabay’s Security Strategies newsletter that as soon as he received his Samsung R525 laptop, he ran a full system scan and found a commercial keylogger called StarLogger. StarLogger claims it records every keystroke made on the computer, even on password-protected boxes, starting up whenever the computer starts up. The software emails results at intervals to a specified email address and will even include screen captures.

Hassan ended up buying a second Samsung laptop, a model R540, and found the same keylogger installed on that one "The fact that on both models the same files were found in the same location supported the suspicion that the hardware manufacturer, Samsung, must know about this software on its brand-new laptops," he writes.

According to CrunchGear, a supervisor at Samsung admitted that the keylogger was installed by the manufacturer: "He confirmed that yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to, as he put it, “monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.”

They advise that if you have a Samsung laptop, you should look in C:\Windows for a \SL directory.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/samsung-installs-keylogger-its-laptops.

Update:  An anonymous commenter at the NetworkWorld link above said "what this Network Security Expert found was a legitimate language file installed by Window's live...the software installed
was in fact Vipre, not the commerical keylogger called StarLogger. The confusion arose because Microsoft's Live Application multi-language support folder, "SL" folder, was mistaken for StarLogger."  A commenter at Crunchgear offered a link to a ZDNet post offering the same rebuttal.

BaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaD advise. throw the darn thing in the deepest hole you can find and stop buying samsung products.
And how is this NEAT??????
Neat would be if the ceo of samsung got bitch slapped with the laptops.
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I knew when I was writing the post that someone would complain that the subject matter wasn't "neat."

That may be true. But the topic may potentially be important to some Neatorama readers.
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I find it "neat" how companies think these sorts of things are 'good ideas'. Human nature at it's finest. Same logic has us giving minority populations all sorts of nasty diseases to "see what happens" in the name of science... So now we do it in the name of marketing...
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I think it's a good thing to have included- thanks. It's definitely something to keep in mind. And if you find out about any other laptops with the same junk on them- feel free to let us know. I, for one, haven't seen it anywhere else in my internet travel today.
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Not being a techno-geek, I'm convinced that manufactures install some type of "kill" switch in computers to last until just after the warranty ends. Every computer I've ever had (and it's been many) have worked [relatively] fine until a couple of months outside of warranty.
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Fair enough Minnesotastan. it might be worth knowing.
but first of all it was a way to early april fools joke on your part. and we got specific forums and places to go for info on bad hardware and software news?
Sorry but i still dont find it neat, or usefull.
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