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The world’s foremost security expert, Bruce Schneier, writes about the Sony DRM rootkit controversy – and what the interesting questions are which we should ask. To summarise: Sony bundles a rootkit on their music cds which secretly installs itself on buyer’s computers (without telling them) to prevent them copying the cd more than 3 times (i.e. the product they’ve designed to protect copyright infringement may itself have infringed on copyright). However, a rootkit is malware (not nice software) and can correctly be classified as a virus.In response to a blogging-led outcry, Sony has shown its disdain for its customers (“Most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”), has barely scraped together an apology and its software “fix” doesn’t remove the rootkit, only its ability to hide itself…. But, according to Schneier, that’s not the real story…The heart of it is this: given that the rootkit has been “in-the-wild” for over a year – and it’s infection numbers make it one of the most serious internet epidemics of all time – what do you think of your antivirus company which hasn’t detected it? After all, this is what you pay them for, right?When a new piece of malware is found, security companies fall over themselves to clean our computers and inoculate our networks…. McAfee and Symantec took a long time to respond and their fixes don’t actually remove the rootkit, just the cloaking.Schneier continues,”The only thing that makes this rootkit legitimate is that a multinational corporation put it on your computer, not a criminal organization. What happens when the creators of malware collude with the very companies we hire to protect us from that malware?We users lose, that’s what happens. A dangerous and damaging rootkit gets introduced into the wild, and half a million computers get infected before anyone does anything.Who are the security companies really working for?… What will they do the next time some multinational company decides that owning your computers is a good idea?These questions are the real story, and we all deserve answers.”Indeed we do…. On a side note, this whole story was broken via blogs (and probably won’t even make it into mainstream media here in South Africa).

Posted on behalf of Glenda & Nicky - In CT, most times when we need to have a meeting, our place of choice is Mugg & Bean. However, after my experience today, I might think twice about going to have something to eat there.My colleague, Nicky and I decided to share...

Let’s hope the SNO brings real competition, and unlike Cell C (the third cellphone company) which simply joined the pigs at the trough and provided no real competition for price.The lesson for everyone else works itself out in a company like Microsoft…. To read a great article about them at MarketingWeb, click here, or read it below.There’s no spin like Telkom spinAndrew Fraser14-NOV-05You’d think that if you were a company with a monopoly position, huge profits and provided essential services at exorbitant prices, the very least you could do would be to be nice to your customers…. This seems to state that the route to take is to screw your customer royally, and then be obnoxiously rude to them when they complain.Everyone knows my feelings about Telkom’s unethical pricing practices…. This bad press has ranged from a front-page article in The Citizen with the headline “TELKOM RIPOFFâ€? (couldn’t have said it better myself) to more technical articles in the IT press about the monopoly’s new ADSL pricing system.Which brings us to Telkom’s biggest and loudest critic: Rudolph Muller and www.MyADSL.co.za, an online community website dedicated to consumer issues in the broadband market…. The site was included in the Financial Mail’s top five sites for 2004, and the large member base has formed a vibrant online community.MyADSL pressured ICASA to hold hearings on Telkom’s ADSL offering, which resulted in draft recommendations highly critical of Telkom…. In fact, he is the kind of person that a marketer would want on their side.If you were a marketer able to easily access a large number of your customers, to hear their impressions of and complaints about your product, and to find a way to satisfy their needs, you’d probably grab the opportunity with both hands…. Someone forgot to tell the marketing and communications departments.On the MyADSL site on Monday Muller posted an email from the Telkom Corporate Communications department berating him for asking questions about Telkom’s plans and accusing him of refusing to set up time to meet the marketing department. Read it here (complete with bad grammar and misspelling): http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=31384Telkom then released an incredibly badly written press release, claiming they received bad press because people don’t understand them, that their Internet Service Provider customers are frauds and thieves and that, actually, MyADSL members agree with their new pricing policy…. Read it for yourself: http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=1150The claims have little basis in fact, the most blatant being this one: “Mr. Muller’s 6 000 MyADSL members also expressing their overwhelming support of this change in that 85% voted in favour of an ADSL usage based billing strategy, according to a poll done on the MyADSL website.”… Telkom’s methods seem to run contrary to conventional thinking … or is it just me?I cannot wait for some liberalisation of the telecoms sector; improved competition simply has to improve the service that customers receive.This article was shortened by Marketingweb.# Andrew Fraser manages branding, advertising and promotion for the South African subsidiary of a large multinational electronics corporation.