Now Networkworld and Mr. Hassan should answer why they made such a baseless allegations?
Someone working in Security firm (NetSec Consulting) should have idea of they are saying.
Someone working in Security firm (NetSec Consulting) should have idea of they are saying.
Did he actually look in the Windows/SL directory? Did he compare the contents to those that StarLogger actually installs (a trial version is available for download)? This seems like pretty basic stuff. Did he ask Microsoft what a Windows/SL directory might be?
The Age article does note:
"Network World said it contacted three public relations officers at Samsung for comment and gave them a week to send back their comments. 'No one from the company replied,' it said."
To be fair to him, Samsung did turn around and say, "Yeah we're keylogging, problem?" or words to that effect. If he's not a technical security consultant then that might be enough for him to go to the press (especially if he felt stiffed by Samsung).
Not all security roles are technical, not all consultants are either, it's entirely possible that he's a policy or risk kind of guy.
May I observe that the only reason we think that Samsung confirmed this is from the words of a source that is now appearing not to be trustworthy in the first place? If this "security consultant" couldn't verify the actual existence of a key logger in the first place, why do we trust him to accurately relay a conversation with support? I don't really accept it as fact that Samsung confirmed anything in particular at any point; the possibility that this guy heard what he wanted to hear is too significant to ignore.
I would suggest that wading through a corporate customer service call center's escalation process is reasonable evidence of due diligence. And I find it somewhat more likely that a call center employee affirmed the SL directory was for keylogging to clear the case than that Mr. Hassan fabricated a story about the call and Samsung's confirmation.
Hassan's allegation has all the marks of a mistake due to inexperience rather than fabrication because it is just too easy to disprove.
Not impressed.
Best thing about that site: he charges $60 flat rate for virus removal.
http://www.nesecc.com/Flyer.htm
Damaging his reputation, that of his friend the writer, and of NetworkWorld: free.
First off, if I even remotely sense that there is malware on my machine it gets an immediate format. Second, why in Thor's name would you buy from Samsung again? I get the impression he's a guy with a little knowledge that thinks he has this whole computer thing figured out. If you are going to make these types of allegations and publish them, you have to approach it scientifically and verify your results.
Because I agree - if you were going to tend to make a big fuss about this (as I would) and I had determined it looked like Samsung installed the first one (as he claimed) in no way would I ever get samsung laptop #2. Not to mention, not even checking the contents of the directory before reporting it widely.
Pretty decent approach to tarnish their reputation too, if it happened that way. To get an estimate of reach, the HN story "Samsung installs keyloggers" currently has 477 votes - it seems quite unlikely the retraction will get that much exposure.