Nov 11, 2005, 19:31 GMT
San Francisco - Hackers have released the first viruses that piggyback on a controversial hidden programme secretly installed on computers by Sony audio CD's, computer security experts said Friday.
Sony included the programme as a copy protection device on some 20 popular music titles from the likes of Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan. When the CD is played on a Windows personal computer, the software secretly installs itself and limits how many times the CD's can be copied. The code was discovered by Windows experts Mark Russinovich on October 31.
Sony is already facing at least six lawsuits over the programme. The discovery of three Trojan horse virusses that use the secret programme to enter computers undetected is sure to increase the backlash against the company.
'The development we feared most from Sony's inclusion of technology to conceal its DRM (digital rights management) software was its use to conceal malicious code,' said David Emm of security firm Kaspersky Labs. 'Unfortunately, it seems our fears were well- grounded.'
Security firm Sophos said that it had discovered a version of the Stinx virus that uses the Sony code and that would allow hackers to gain control of infected machines.
Sony has insisted that the software poses no security threat but released a patch last week that uncloaks files hidden by its software.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberty group, said it is hearing from people who have run into problems with the copy protection software. It is considering filing its own lawsuit, said EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz.
'You can't uninstall it, you can't find it, and it's vastly more invasive in terms of privacy and personal property than any other (digital rights management) program to date,' he said.
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