I was one the people who was duped by a story about how Samsung was installing a keylogger on its new laptop computers. The incident was originally reported by a ‘security expert’ who posted his alleged findings on the Internet in which many of us bloggers took his claim as being gospel. As we ranted and raved about how Samsung had crossed over the line, little did we know that this was not the case and it was actually a false-positive by VIPRE security software.

The ‘security expert’ in question, Mohamed Hassan, holds many degrees including the initials MSIA, CISSP, and CISA, and is with the Norwich University Center for Advanced Computing and Digital Forensics. Yet he relied on a security product and the results as provided by the software, without properly investigating the matter further and before providing his results. What was also disturbing was his report of a conversation with a Samsung employee who allegedly confirmed that a keylogger was being placed on its laptop computers.

But there is something more important than the original report itself. It is the ability of the Internet to potentially destroy the reputation of a company before the allegations are actually proved. No matter how many apologies nor how many retractions are posted, the image for Samsung has been tarnished.

So why were we so eager to believe the worst about a major corporation and distrustful of its motives? In our defense we consumers have very little confidence in corporations, since they are ruled by greed. It is disgraceful that a company like G.E. can pay no federal taxes and have the audacity to have its CEO report on TV that G.E. had a couple of bad years, so this is why it owed no taxes. What a crock.

We have also become anesthetized by our local, state, and federal leaders who we can no longer trust to provide us the truth and are suspect to what their real motives are. No longer do these people represent the interest of the people but put themselves before the common good. So how can any of us not feel distrustful of big corporations, our representatives, or the shenanigans of Wall Street?

So while I do not like being duped and believe that Mr. Hassan should have investigated more thoroughly the case against Samsung before providing his results, I also believe he felt his warning was justified. Unfortunately he relied on a single security software to substantiate his claim which provided a false-positive to the presence of a keylogger.

Hopefully this will teach us all to be more cautious in our reports and wait until the allegations are properly investigated.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source – networkworld