Sony Warned Weeks Ahead of Rootkit Flap

pdschmid writes "Business Week has an article describing how Sony BMG had been warned by F-Secure on Oct. 4 about the dangers of their rootkit protection, but failed to do anything until Oct. 31 when computer-systems expert Mark Russinovich revealed the rootkit in his blog." From the article: "Sony BMG officials insist that they acted as quickly as they could, and that they expected to be able to go public and offer a software patch at the same time. However, Russinovich posted his blog item first, forcing Sony BMG to scramble to contain the crisis. It recalled millions of CDs recorded by 52 artists, including Van Zant, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond. Plus, it offered exchanges to customers."

Sony made a rootkit?

[Winckle]

Why didn't Slashdot tell us before?!

Thats what happens...

[Anonymous Coward]

...when a company becomes bigger than its customer base.

They shouldn't have recalled the CDs

[Pac]

Van Zant, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond

They should have left the rootkit in place so we could download some good music directly to these misguided buyers' hard drives.

recalled?

[wazzles]

It recalled millions of CDs recorded by 52 artists, including Van Zant, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond. CDs by these artists should have been recalled anyway, rootkit or not.

Re:Another possibility exists...

[Vengeance]

That they were lying is one possible explanation. Looking on the bright side, another possibility is that they're just incompetent. OK, OK, let's keep politics out of this discussion.

Obligatory

[LilJC]

"I'm a recall coordinator. My job was to apply the formula. It's simple arithmetic. It's a story problem. A new car built by my company leaves Boston traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now: Do we initiate a recall? You take the number of vehicles in the field (A) and multiply it by the probable rate of failure (B), multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement (C). A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."

Re:They shouldn't have recalled the CDs

[Bin_jammin]

Wouldn't that be an upload?

Re:2nd chance to buy one

[CoolCash]

...Van Zant, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond

There already there...

Re:Sony made a rootkit?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why didn't Slashdot tell us before?!

You're reading on a Vaio, in which case you won't be able to see any stories containing the sequence $sys$

Re:Obligatory

[nb caffeine]

What car company do you work for?

Scrambling to contain the crisis

[digitaldc]

Phony Sony put its CDs on a shelf
Phony Sony had a rootkit which installed itself.
But all of Sony's lawyers and all of Sony's PR men,
Could not put the integrity back into Sony again.

Re:Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a quote from the movie "Fight Club." Ed Norton's character plays a recall coordinator for a "major" car company.

And yet, you missed the fact that the parent post was the next line in the movie... *sigh*

"It" usage

[Anonymous Coward]

It recalled millions of CDs recorded by 52 artists, including Van Zant, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond. Plus, it offered exchanges to customers.

It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it's told.

Re:Obligatory

[Minwee]

Now a question of etiquette. In response to your post, do I give you the ass or the crotch?

Re:They shouldn't have recalled the CDs

[jx100]

They suddenly like gangsta rap?

Never underestimate incompetence

[Overzeetop]

Never underestimate the incompetence of a large organization, nor the ability of middle managers to hide career-stopping errors for short* periods of time.

*Short is generally between 60 days and 4 years - sometimes longer, but rarely shorter. It is mostly dependent on the type of auditing done, the desire of upper management to find a scapegoat, and the amount of publicity surrounding the original erroneous decision.

Re:Scrambling to contain the crisis

[slavemowgli]

I'm not sure if the "scrambling" in the title is an intentional pun here, but if it, it's brilliant - hats off to you. :)

Re:"... it offered exchanges to customers."

[orgelspieler]

I want heads to roll.

nah. Here in Texas we use the electric chair!

Improved rootkit....

[turbo spyder]

" From the article: "Sony BMG officials insist that they acted as quickly as they could, and that they expected to be able to go public and offer a software patch at the same time. However, Russinovich posted his blog item first, forcing Sony BMG to scramble to contain the crisis. It recalled millions of CDs recorded by 52 artists, including Van Zant, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond. Plus, it offered exchanges to customers." How were they going to issue the software patch? An improved rootkit in the next CD!

Hey, Tashi, where's our advertising?

[mmell]

$sys$Buy_Sony_Merchandise

oops!

Re:Another possibility exists...

[KGB is My Name]

..to beat a cliche to death:

It's a sony, afterall.

--
"That's not exactly what I meant."

Re:"Catfight" reads like a P.R. release from Sony.

[Anonymous Coward]

To me, it sounds vaguely reminiscent of "Hello Rootkitty".

Re:Another possibility exists...

[fdiskne1]

True, and you should never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence. Though in fun world of corporations, the two seem to go hand in hand.

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

Re:"... it offered exchanges to customers."

[bemenaker]

But a guillotine is such a better deterrent!!

Re:Obligatory

[rograndom]

A major one.

Re:Still on the Shelves

[Anonymous Coward]

wow. you must be fun at parties.

Re:This is wonderful!

[tgd]

blah blah blah bust blah blah blah blah Erin Brockovitch? :D

Huh? What?

How can it be considered a net loss,

[Philip K Dickhead]

When the result means recalling Neil Diamond and Celine Dion? More of that in the wild, we do not need!

Re:Another possibility exists...

[Jonny_eh]

How do you know mplayer has 'unknown patent violations', if they're unknown. Are they known to you, but not known to us?

Re:Obligatory

[GrumpySimon]

...Ford was also criminally prosecuted for wreckless homicide in Indiana...

Huh, I thought the wrecks were the problem.