Dell has sold computers preinstalled with a potential security vulnerability that makes it easy for hackers to hijack Internet connections and masquerade as trusted websites.
The problem in Dell’s case lies in a trusted root certificate—a notarized digital credential—called “eDellRoot” that a computer programmer named Joe Nord recently discovered on his Inspiron Series 5000 notebook. The digital certificate verifies that the website a computer user visits is, in fact, the intended one.
After Nord posted about his finding, another Dell customer tweeted that his device was also affected. “Holy cow,” the fellow Dell user, who had purchased an XPS 15 laptop, said in reply. “Yessir, we have the exact same certificate and private key.” ……..CONTINUE READING
