Lenovo to pay $3.5 mn for compromised user security

Lenovo, a major laptop maker, has agreed to pay $3.5 million and make changes in how it sells laptops in order to settle allegations its old devices with pre-loaded software that compromised users' security protections. The agreement with Connecticut, the Federal Trade Commission and 31 other states was announced on Tuesday. The software, called Visual Discovery, was installed on hundreds of thousands of laptops beginning in August 2014 in order to deliver pop-up advertisements. The software also blocked browsers from warning users when they tried to access malicious websites.