Tech Shout!

The millions of CDs containing the XCP copy protection software, which exposes computers to grave security risks will be now recalled, announced Sony BMG.

Celine Dion, Neil Diamond, Southern rocker Van Zant are amongst those whose CDs are going to be recalled.

Sony BMG said that all CDs containing the XCP software would be taken off the racks from all retail outlets, and exchanges would be given to consumers who had bought any of them. A toll-free number and e-mail message inquiry system would also be set up on the company’s Web site.

Sony continued that over the past eight months, it has shipped more than 4.7 million CDs with the XCP software, and over 2.1 million of these have been sold.

The company said that it deeply regrets any inconvenience caused to its customers, and is committed to making the situation right. The move is expected to cost Sony BMG tens of millions of dollars.

Sony BMGs recall and exchange program comes two weeks after news spread on the Internet, that certain Sony BMG CDs contain copy protection software which hides itself using “rootkit” mechanism, and which can be exploited by hackers to attack vulnerable computer systems.

At the time, Sony BMG responded by posting a patch on its Web site, that promised to reveal the hidden software

However since then several problems have been identified with the software, as well as Sony BMG’s patch, and other un-install processes issued by the company to address the flaws.

Security researchers highlighted the on-line release of several trojans that piggybacked on Sony s software to hide their presence on hard drives.

In addition to this, Sony announced that in order to protect its customers, it would update its security tools to detect and remove parts of the BMG copy protection software.

Meanwhile, independent security researcher - Dan Kaminsky, has said that according to his estimates, at least 500,000 computers have installed the Sony BMG software so far.