All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Attention gamers! Motherboard maker MSI admits to breach, issues “rogue firmware” alert
If you’re a gamer or an avid squeezer of raw computing power, you’ve probably spent hours tweaking your motherboard settings to eke out every last drop of performance.
Over the years, you might even have tried out various unofficial firmware bodges and hacks to let you change settings that would otherwise be inaccessible, or to choose configuration combinations that aren’t usually allowed.
Just to be clear: we strongly advise against installing unknown, untrusted firmware BLOBs.
(BLOB is a jocular jargon term for firmware files that’s short for binary large object, meaning that it’s an all-in-one stew of code, tables of data, embedded files and images, and indeed anything needed by the firmware when it starts up.)
Loosely speaking, the firmware is a kind of low-level operating system in its own right that is responsible for getting your computer to the point at which it can boot into a regular operating system such as Windows, or one of the BSDs, or a Linux distro.
This means that booby-trapped firmware code, if you can be tricked into installing it, could be used to undermine the very security on which your subsequent operating system security relies.
Rogue firmware could, in theory, be used to spy on almost everything you do on your computer, acting as a super-low-level rootkit, the jargon term for malware that exists primarily to protect and hide other malware.
Rootkits generally aim to make higher-level malware difficult not only to remove, but even to detect in the first place.
MSI Announcement:
MSI recently suffered a cyberattack on part of its information systems. Upon detecting network anomalies, the information department promptly activated relevant defense mechanisms and carried out recovery measures, and reported the incident to government law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity units. Currently, the affected systems have gradually resumed normal operations, with no significant impact on financial business.
MSI urges users to obtain firmware/BIOS updates only from its official website, and not to use files from sources other than the official website.
MSI is committed to protecting the data security and privacy of consumers, employees, and partners, and will continue to strengthen its cybersecurity architecture and management to maintain business continuity and network security in the future.
Reference: https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-Statement-141688
Comments
thanks for information
With a headline like that, I have an obligation to post this meme.
Luckily I use ASUS