Alex Reid

EFF Confirms Secret Software on 19 CDs

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says that some Sony-BMG CDs include a secret rootkit software when played on your computer. The software, created by First 4 Internet and known as XCP2, ostensibly “protects” the music from illegal copying. But really it blocks a number of legal uses–like listening to songs on your iPod. The software also reportedly slows down your computer and makes it more susceptible to crashes and third-party attacks. And since the program is designed to hide itself, users may have trouble diagnosing the problem. And Sony-BMG have no instructions how to remove it.

If you listened to a CD with the XCP software on your Windows PC, your computer is likely already infected. To view the growing list of infected CDs, click here. You can spot CDs with XCP by inspecting a CD closely by looking at the back of the CD like in the image above.