Lenovo laptops may have malware installed on them making secure transactions something that should be avoided until the issue is resolved. If you purchased a Lenovo between September 2014 and January 2015, the past Christmas season, there is a good chance that Superfish adware is installed on the computer and is capable to capturing secure internet traffic. Users should immediately make sure that their systems are not compromised according to security experts at Defcon security.

16 million home users could have adware, while business users who did not purchase their computers at retail locations are safe. The company worked with advertiser Superfish to put the software on computers so that ads could be placed on secure web pages that are reached by the user. Security experts say that this undermines the secure transaction and makes it vulnerable to hacking.

There are a number of tools online to check if your computer has the Superfish adware installed. Removing the software is another matter. Users will need to completely reinstall their Windows operating system or switch to a different operating system. Microsoft may develop a fix for the root certificate problem and release a Windows patch, but at this time there is no easy fix.

CNET Update - Lenovo poisoned its own PCs with Superfish adware