Microsoft accused of hacking attack

international | sci-tech | other press Wednesday October 22, 2008 06:07 by gar arpakola at gmail dot com

An angry Chinese lawyer accused Microsoft of perpetrating the biggest ever hacker attack in response to the software giant's controversial move to trigger hourly screen blackouts on computers using pirated copies of Windows XP.

By Ma Yujia, Pang Li & Keen Zhang
http://www.china.org.cn/china/national/2008-10/21/conte...6.htm
An angry Chinese lawyer accused Microsoft of perpetrating the biggest ever hacker attack in response to the software giant's controversial move to trigger hourly screen blackouts on computers using pirated copies of Windows XP.
On October 20, Dong Zhengwei, a lawyer of Beijing Zhongyin Law Office, sent a complaint to China's Ministry of Public Security, accusing Microsoft of invading personal computers without user permission or judicial authorization, the Beijing Times reported.
Dong said the judiciary should assign criminal responsibility for the Windows Genuine Advantage Program so called "Black Screen" scheme and halt this "illegal move".
To fight software piracy Microsoft announced on October 15 that, starting October 21, Microsoft anti-piracy software would be automatically installed on users' computers through the routine Internet-based update mechanism. If a computer fails a validation test, the desktop will change to a plain black background when the computer is restarted.