Sony Reaches Rootkit Settlement with 39 States

Sony Reaches Rootkit Settlement with 39 States

Finally, there is some closure to Sony's fiasco of adding a rootkit to their CD's. As many of you know, Sony, in an attempt to deter piracy of its property, secretly placed a rootkit on several of its music CD's. It wasn't too long before people, who brought and played those CD's on their computer, noticed something amidst. When the rootkit came to light, hackers started targeting computers which had Sony's rootkit installed. The rootkit created a vulnerability on those computer and hacker exploited it. Sony has settled with 39 states over its use of rootkits. In the settlement, Sony is to pay $4.25 million to people whose computers were infected by the rootkit. Those affect will have to show proof that their computers were indeed infected by the rootkit. Qualified receipents will receive compensation up to $175.