Skip to main content

Lenovo’s CTO apologizes for Superfish debacle

Lenovo ThinkPad X250
Image used with permission by copyright holder
If you have a connection to the internet, you probably haven’t been able to turn around twice this week without hearing about the Superfish adware that’s appeared on Lenovo’s systems.

Users of Windows machines have long since grown accustomed to the practice of various hardware vendors installing all manner of bloatware on their products prior to purchase. Dell ShareZone, Samsung Music Thing, HP Print Something or Other, all forgettable pieces of software that only our grandparents use -but until now they were generally innocuous enough not to raise an alarm.

Recommended Videos

Now all that has changed with the introduction of Superfish, which Lenovo was bundling as part of the stock softare installed on laptops and desktops brandishing its logo. The software broke the SSL chain between a browser and the Internet, so it could inject ads into everyday browsing destinations. That’s bad enough, but it also means anyone who hijacks the adware’s security certificate, which is protected by a single password that’s already cracked, can inject other, even more malicious content or read data that’s supposed to be encrypted.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Related: Lenovo PCs with Superfish adware contain critical security vulnerability

Luckily, Microsoft was lightning quick to respond to the problem, and has updated its Microsoft Security Essentials suite with a patch that can root out the problem post haste.

Following the dust-up, Lenovo’s CTO Peter Hortensius has come out to publicly apologize for the debacle in an interview with PCWorld, where he readily admits that his company “messed up, and added “going forward, we feel quite strongly that we made a significant mistake here.”

The company responsible for developing Superfish, Komodia, has come under fire from Internet vigilantes in the form of a massive denial of service attack which has apparently shut down the company’s operations. Komodia has so far refused to admit any wrong-doing, which is not unexpected. Adware is the company’s product, after all, so disowning Superfish would mean abandoning a key piece of software.

Lenovo, however, has posted updated uninstall instructions that allegedly remove not only the software, but also the HTTPS security certificate exploit which made Superfish a problem in the first place.

Chris Stobing
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Self-proclaimed geek and nerd extraordinaire, Chris Stobing is a writer and blogger from the heart of Silicon Valley. Raised…
Presidents’ Day Dell Deals: XPS, G16, monitors and more on sale
The Dell XPS 14 open on a wooden table.

Presidents' Day is a nice three-day reprieve from work, and it's also a nice excuse to do some shopping. And Dell is certainly ready, with business laptops, monitors, and more discounted on their website and across Amazon. We've picked out our favorite deals, largely from the best Dell products out there -- and products we've personally reviewed or have hands-on experiences with. Here, we present that list to you so you can get some of the best laptop deals and monitor deals around. Remember that as these deals are coming out around the Presidents' Day holiday (though not all of them have explicit "Presidents' Day" markings) they very well might end soon, so plan your purchases accordingly.
Dell S2425HS Monitor — $110 $140 21% off

This sleek monitor with a modern look has integrated speakers, a 100Hz refresh rate, and a 4-star TÜV Rheinland eye comfort rating. The 24-inch Dell S2425HS is a great second monitor for your home office or second study. You won't find many monitor deals with a price lower than the starting price of $140 that this one sports, much less the reduced $110.

Read more
1Password vs. NordPass: which password manager is best in 2025?
1Password and NordPass reviews appear beside one another on a PC monitor.

1Password and NordPass are among the most popular and best password managers available. Both offer significant improvements over the built-in solutions you get from Microsoft, Apple, and Google, making it hard to choose between them.

I've reviewed the latest versions of 1Password and NordPass in 2025 and can share some insights into the differences and compare prices to help you discover which offers the best value for you.
Specs

Read more
This iBuyPower gaming PC with RTX 4060 is under $1,000 — for now
The iBUYPOWER Trace 7 Mesh gaming desktop on a white background.

Gaming PC deals worth buying still usually cost more than $1,000 after the discounts, but here's an offer from Best Buy that's available for a more affordable price. The iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh, which is originally sold for $1,300, is down to just $900 following a $400 discount. We're not sure how much time is remaining before this bargain ends, so if you're interested in this gaming desktop, you need to push forward with your purchase immediately if you want to secure the savings.

Why you should buy the iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh gaming PC
The iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh is a relatively affordable gaming PC, but it doesn't sacrifice much in terms of performance. It runs on the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, which is in our list of the best graphics cards as our recommendation for 1080p gaming. It has 16GB of RAM, which is the best place to start for a gaming PC, according to our guide on how much RAM do you need. With these components, you won't have trouble playing the best PC games, though you'll have to go with medium settings for the more demanding titles.

Read more