Update | Lenovo promises security reboot in wake of Superfish adware lawsuit in US
Lenovo Group, the world's largest supplier of personal computers, will soon launch a sweeping security overhaul in response to a major controversy over adware the company preloaded on millions of its laptops.
Peter Hortensius, Lenovo's chief technology officer, announced that plan in an open letter published yesterday through the company's website to apologise for the security scare.
The statement came after a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company last week at the United States District Court of the Southern District of California by a professional blogger, Jessica Bennett.
The plaintiff claimed that she received unwanted pop-up advertisements on a Lenovo Yoga 2 laptop she used for business. She later learned that her laptop was among those with the Superfish Visual Discovery adware.
At least six US law firms have started separate investigations for a potential class-action lawsuit against Lenovo and its partner, software start-up Superfish.
Lenovo may be in more hot water than initially thought. There could be a short-term hit to its stock price
Hong Kong-listed Lenovo's shares tumbled 2 per cent to HK$11.76 in early trading yesterday, finishing down 0.50 per cent to HK$11.94.