In a development eerily reminiscent of the Sony DRM rootkit fiasco of 2006 (in which the company tried to protect music CDs from copying by way of software programs which exposed users to security theats), computer security firms are warning that fingerprint reading software for Sony’s MicroVault USM-F USB drives with integrated fingerprint readers may expose Windows users to security risks. Like the CD copy protection software, the fingerprint reader software attempts to hide key files from tampering either by the user or computer security programs; in doing so, it potentially creates a "safe zone" from which attackers and malware could run software or otherwise compromise a user’s computer.
