Chinese Hackers Crack Microsoft Anti-Piracy ‘Black Screen of Death’
On October 20, Microsoft China announced that they would release an anti-piracy patch in China called the “Black Screen of Death” to combat pirated versions of Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office software. Hours after the release, Chinese Internet users asserted that Chinese hackers have already broken the anti-piracy patch. It is not yet confirmed whether the hackers have been able to crack all the anti-piracy patch specifications.
The “Black Screen of Death” causes computers with unauthorized Windows XP Professional to display a black screen when starting the computer. Users with the pirated version could reset the background and return it to normal use, but the black screen is set to reoccur every 60 minutes. In addition, when a user logs into a pirated system, a dialog box will pop up at the right corner of the screen, saying, "You may be a victim of pirated software."
