Dell Owners Better Listen Up
Okay Dell owners pay attention. Recently, a computer programmer named Joe Nord discovered a potential security problem on his Dell Inspiron 5000. Computers have digital certificates on them which check internet security and a bunch of other complex stuff. Well, Nord found one that Dell had installed called "eDellRoot" which is supposed to check to make sure that the website the user is visiting is actually the one it says it is.
So why is this a big deal? Hackers are able to essentially turn this certificate back on itself and are able to create fake pages that look exactly like the one you think you are visiting. They are able to steal any private information such as banking information, address, and other information that you really wouldn't want stolen.
It seems as though this certificate only started appearing on computers that were purchased in the second half of 2015, but it still might be a good idea to check for it even if you've had your Dell for a few years.
So how do you do this check? Here's some steps to see.
go to Start -> type "certmgr.msc" -> (accept on UAC prompt) -> Trusted Root Certification Authorities -> Certificates
If you look through the certificates and find one called eDellRoot then unfortunately you are potentially in trouble.
If you would like more information on this problem here are a couple of other links that can shed more light on the subject, including an official statement from Dell about the situation which also includes instructions to remove it in case the update they pushed that would remove it did not go through. One of them is the original blog post written by Joe Nord about the problem.
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