Lenovo website hacked in wake of Superfish debacle

25.02.2015
Lenovo's website appeared to have been hacked Wednesday, possibly in retaliation for a piece of adware it installed on PCs that was found to have opened up a security hole.

Early Wednesday afternoon Pacific time, some visitors to lenovo.com were greeted with what looked like webcam images of a bored teenager sitting in a bedroom, and the song "Breaking Free" from an old Disney movie.

The source code for the web page includes the line: "The new and improved rebranded Lenovo website featuring Ryan King and Rory Andrew Godfrey," two people who've reportedly been connected to the hacker group Lizard Squad.

Soon after, what appeared to be emails between Lenovo and two of its contractors -- an outsourcing company and a public relations firm -- were posted to the Lizard Squad's Twitter feed. One of the emails is about the hack that just occurred.

Lenovo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company has been under fire all week after it emerged that the Superfish adware that Lenovo pre-installed on some PCs opens up a security hole. Lenovo was forced to apologize and released a tool to remove it.

James Niccolai covers data centers and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow James on Twitter at @jniccolai. James's e-mail address is james_niccolai@idg.com

James Niccolai