Lenovo wants you to stop buying used PCs because they may have viruses(youtube.com)
youtube.com
Lenovo wants you to stop buying used PCs because they may have viruses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahw1cppZi-g
7 comments
i would laugh, but the effort to do a cleanup for hardware that wont run the latest snooping, and analytics is concerning.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37778771
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37778771
Maybe also hallucinated by AI, just like their amazing glossary?
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/glossary/
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/glossary/
This is especially ironic in light of Lenovo's own preinstalled malware and bloatware over the years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Security_and_privacy_in...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Security_and_privacy_in...
When IBM sold the business to the CCP my first thought was "I can't believe this isn't being blocked. This is the dumbest possible move as far as nat sec, ThinkPads are everywhere important."
Of course this happened:
> In February 2021, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that U.S. investigators found in 2008 that military units in Iraq were using Lenovo laptops in which the hardware had been altered. According to a testimony from the case in 2010, "A large amount of Lenovo laptops were sold to the U.S. military that had a chip encrypted on the motherboard that would record all the data that was being inputted into that laptop and send it back to China". Lenovo was unaware of the testimony. The U.S. military did not inform the company of any security concerns. Spokeswoman Charlotte West stated, "As there have been no reports of any problems, we have no way to assess the allegations you cite or whether security concerns may have been triggered by third-party interference."
Of course this happened:
> In February 2021, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that U.S. investigators found in 2008 that military units in Iraq were using Lenovo laptops in which the hardware had been altered. According to a testimony from the case in 2010, "A large amount of Lenovo laptops were sold to the U.S. military that had a chip encrypted on the motherboard that would record all the data that was being inputted into that laptop and send it back to China". Lenovo was unaware of the testimony. The U.S. military did not inform the company of any security concerns. Spokeswoman Charlotte West stated, "As there have been no reports of any problems, we have no way to assess the allegations you cite or whether security concerns may have been triggered by third-party interference."
So the company that sells computers with all sorts of garbage software pre-installed is warning you about buying used because it may have garbage pre-installed? Got it.
I read that some of their software installs itself, runs and collects data, then uninstalls itself after a while.
I am still coding on secondary laptop Lenovo E520 from 2011 with some oldish i3 and it still works pretty decently. Yes it has more RAM, SSD and second battery. I am going to buy a replacement in few months, because I need more battery life and some tasks are taking much longer than on desktop PC, which is increasingly more annoying. But I was able to juice 13 years of life from it. And I don't think that I am only one with 10+ year old computer.