Is Samsung using keylogging software on their new laptops?

A security researcher says he discovered keylogging software installed on two brand-new Samsung laptops that could be used to monitor all activities on the computer remotely.

Mohamed Hassan, founder of NetSec Consulting, discovered StarLogger software on Samsung laptops with model numbers R525 and 540 after running security scanning software on the systems when he bought them last month, he writes in a guest column in Network World posted today.

A Samsung representative told CNET this afternoon that the company would looking into the matter. Late this evening, Samsung Australia said in a statement that the keylogger reports were "not true. Our findings indicate that the person mentioned in the article used a security program called VIPRE [antivirus software] that mistook a folder created by Microsoft Live Application for...key logging software, during a virus scan."

Writing in Network World, Hassan concluded: "Samsung's conduct may be illegal; even if it is eventually ruled legal by the courts, the issue has legal, ethical, and privacy implications for both the businesses and individuals who may purchase and use Samsung laptops. Samsung could also be liable should the vast amount of information collected through StarLogger fall into the wrong hands."

Hassan said when he called and logged an incident report with Samsung on March 1, support personnel initially denied that keylogging software was on Samsung laptops and then referred him to Microsoft, saying "all Samsung did was manufacture the hardware," he writes. Eventually, a supervisor got on the phone and confirmed that Samsung put the software on the laptop to monitor machine performance "and to find out how it is being used."

"In other words, Samsung wanted to gather usage data without obtaining consent from laptop owners," Hassan wrote.


Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20048896-245.html