In mid February of 2015 the news broke out that Lenovo, a global leader in notebook manufacturer, had mistakenly shipped all its desktops and laptops between the months of September and December with an ad-ware called Superfish. Well, if that's not troubling enough then hear what it does.
Superfish uses a man-in-the-middle certificate to insert ads into Web browsers. But it also opens the door to third-party access of a user's browser data, according to security researchers. Which means all your passwords be it a social site account password or a shopping site's credit card password all are at risk!
Now Lenovo is has ceased the installation of Superfish in all its products but for those who purchased a Lenovo laptop or desktop in this period or have purchased one recently it's a worthy protocol that you inspect and clean tour machine for any traces of this as-ware as it is "non-detectable" by any anti-virus!
Note: Lenovo released an automated tool that will remove the software and certificate. You can find that here. Manual uninstall instructions are below.
Still for those who don't have a net connection to download the tool, mainly in rural areas where the internet connectivity is very thin, I'm giving the manual steps below. Just follw them and you'll be all good.
2. Without the quotations type "remove programs" and select Add or remove programs.
3. Now in the list of all the programs that appear search for the name "Superfish Inc. Visual Discovery" if it is not there then you don't have the program on your system and you can skip the next step and jump to the next section of this article.
4. If you see this program then it is there, simple select Uninstall and you'll get rid of the Superfish ad-ware.
1. Again open "search" on Windows 8.1
2. Search for "Certificate" and select "Manage computer certificates."
3. The pop that appears will have options of Yes and No, simply select Yes.
4. Another window will appear. On the left, look for "Trusted Root Certificate Authorities." Click that and then select the "Certificates" sub-folder. In the list that appears on the right, find "Superfish, Inc." (If it's not there, you don't have the Superfish certificate installed.)
5. Right-Click and select delete on the Superfish Inc. directory and confirm the delete.
6. Restart your PC
There, you are all done and good to go.
Superfish uses a man-in-the-middle certificate to insert ads into Web browsers. But it also opens the door to third-party access of a user's browser data, according to security researchers. Which means all your passwords be it a social site account password or a shopping site's credit card password all are at risk!
Now Lenovo is has ceased the installation of Superfish in all its products but for those who purchased a Lenovo laptop or desktop in this period or have purchased one recently it's a worthy protocol that you inspect and clean tour machine for any traces of this as-ware as it is "non-detectable" by any anti-virus!
Note: Lenovo released an automated tool that will remove the software and certificate. You can find that here. Manual uninstall instructions are below.
Still for those who don't have a net connection to download the tool, mainly in rural areas where the internet connectivity is very thin, I'm giving the manual steps below. Just follw them and you'll be all good.
Removing Superfish ad-ware
1. Open "search" in Windows 8.1
3. Now in the list of all the programs that appear search for the name "Superfish Inc. Visual Discovery" if it is not there then you don't have the program on your system and you can skip the next step and jump to the next section of this article.
4. If you see this program then it is there, simple select Uninstall and you'll get rid of the Superfish ad-ware.
Removing the Superfish Certificates
According to Lenovo, the certificate might still exist even if you delete the application, so you need to delete both manually.1. Again open "search" on Windows 8.1
2. Search for "Certificate" and select "Manage computer certificates."
3. The pop that appears will have options of Yes and No, simply select Yes.
4. Another window will appear. On the left, look for "Trusted Root Certificate Authorities." Click that and then select the "Certificates" sub-folder. In the list that appears on the right, find "Superfish, Inc." (If it's not there, you don't have the Superfish certificate installed.)
5. Right-Click and select delete on the Superfish Inc. directory and confirm the delete.
6. Restart your PC
There, you are all done and good to go.
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