Slashdot Mirror
Spoiler Alert: Your TV Will Be Hacked
snydeq writes "With rising popularity of Internet-enabled TVs, the usual array of attacks and exploits will soon be coming to a screen near you. 'Will Internet TVs will be hacked as successfully as previous generations of digital devices? Of course they will. Nothing in a computer built into a TV makes it less attackable than a PC. ... Can we make Internet TVs more secure than regular computers? Yes. Will we? Probably not. We never do the right things proactively. Instead, we as a global society appear inclined to accept half-baked security solutions that are more like Band-Aids than real protection.'"
No longer will I need a universal remote to screw with the neighbors television.
These are often forgotten by engineers. Usually they are formulated as thing you do not want your TV to do:
- not damage your furniture
- not start a fire
- not weight a ton
- not hack your network
You would think these are simple and logical expectations. The problem is, they are hardly good marketing, so they may not receive the necessary priority. But they can be very bad marketing if a story hits...
One day, our TVs shall be hacked, and they shall show nothing but that damned purple Dinosaur.
As long as the h4ckZ0rs only switch my channel from NatGeo to CNN I do not really care much,
Na, they'll switch your channel from Disney Channel to Playboy instead, and then you will care...
I'm wondering why my tv hasn't been hacked with air waves : one morning, I switched it on and it told me a firmware update had been uploaded over the air during the night.
What can stop hackers to send rogue fw updates over the air ?
Also, is it possible to exploit mpeg2 video decoder bugs to takecontrol of tv ?
Any info of previously discovered hacks of this kind ?
"Here goes your facebook ID, oops so bad, you had a bank account interconnected to it...."
That would be Paypal ID, not facebook, and it's not as if nobody had told you so already one million times
Bonus points for the first ones to rickroll on every channel at once.
And... go
I prefer my TV's to be dumb displays
They should be limited to take video in, modify resolution/contrast/etc as per settings and display it on the screen, and provide a control interface
IF I want to play media on it, I will use a device for that
Modularity is better
Why would you care about that ?
Because all I'm getting are repeats
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
The ultimate TV hack, one that will make you the most infamous hacker in the US. Make it so that during the last quarter of the superbowl, the entire country gets rickrolled and are unable to return to the game. If it's a close game, wait til the very end (last year doing it on Brady's last drive would be perfect).
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
An internet enabled TV is going to be irresistible to TV companies. Perfectly legally they will get together with the manufacturers to personalise you TV experience. Given half a chance they will monitor your viewing, suggest programs, personalise adverts, maybe even personalise the news. Not so bad you might think: I never have to see Sarah Palin on the TV again. More likely, if they think you are an independent voter in a swing state, it is back to back political adverts for you for the next six months. Don't be surprised if your remote dont seem to work half way through a PAC spot. Remember If You're Not Paying for It; You're the Product
Think once,
Think twice,
Think don't watch television. It was never beneficial. It soaks up valuable internet/gaming time. Pay t.v. is never worth the cost.
Just another screen to clean.It encourages relatives/loafers to hang around your place eating your food for longer than normal.
Whatever is on will just piss you off / bore you. It's just re-runs anyway. Just take it to Salvation Army and get a donation receipt for tax purposes.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
I gotta ask, do you have the same beard as the guy in the article?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I wonder how they intend to hack my TV when it's not plugged into either Ethernet or wireless networks. Because even if I did have an "Internet TV", it wouldn't be plugged in.
If it was, it would be behind my firewall/router. If they were relying on me to visit a malicious website to "infect" my TV, they'd be sadly disappointed - I can't imagine that many people use their TV like that given that every year or so the requirements change. If you can see a modern Internet site (e.g. Flash, Silverlight, etc.), then chances are that your software is pretty up-to-date and no worse than a PC that was similarly updated.
Of those that don't handle interactive content directly, it's either not a risk (it's pretty hard to crash AND compromise an embedded browser with just a badly formed HTML page or similar), or it goes through some sort of remote proxy (e.g. Opera Mini) that will probably be working to stamp out the problem for you.
Above all that, beyond playing tricks and crashing my browser, I'd be interested to know what incentive they would have to do that? I don't plug credit card numbers into my TV. I watch TV on it. If you're silly enough to plug in things like Facebook, Twitter, etc. passwords into your TV, then maybe they could cause a little havoc ("Guess what John watched last night on the Adult Channel?") but that's about it.
Or is this just a ruse to sell "Antivirus for your TV"?
These devices are pretty passive, unless you make them do something. You're pretty safe while your internal network is clean (and if it isn't, your TV is the least of your worries). To infect would require some kind of active participation (same as any well-managed PC) that, maybe, possibly, it wouldn't be able to handle safely. But, chances are, the havoc it could wreak would be nothing compared to that same user on their laptop.
Of course it's something to think about but I don't think such a big fuss should be made. Hell, people still haven't worked out that a smartphone is yet-another-computer that they have to manage properly, with bad consequences if they don't (run up enormous bills, etc.). But even they aren't that much of a problem. I've never had anyone come to me about fixing their smartphone because of things like this, but I get 2-3 a week about their laptops etc. I've certainly never had anyone ask about their TV unless it was a dumb TV or literally how to wire it to their Internet connection / Wii / whatever.
I think infinitely more dangerous than a TV would be:
- smartphones
- gaming consoles with internet access / wireless
- smart meters with internet access / wireless
- Skype phones
- Internet connected printers
- etc.
And a lot of those have been running around people's houses (some targetted at non-techy users) for years. Yes, it's almost certainly possible to "attack" my printer / TV / Skype phone. But it's almost certainly not worth the effort to a) discover what model I use, b) link that to an IP address, c) somehow enter my network and intercept communications to it, d) figure out how to do something clever on that device when actions that are much easier to do and hide mean you can compromise similar people anyway.
Worst case scenario is that your TV web browsing is an "insecure" as your laptop web browsing. But with much less potential impact.
I'd care. Huge improvement. Have you seen the shit they throw out on Disney? You can at least expect a tolerable plot from Playboy.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
My crap is already in 3D...
There Can Be Only One...
Because I won't put it on the Internet. That's what I have an HTPC for. And I know how to secure that. It's looking likely I will still have an HTPC in 10 years time, and nothing except standalone computers and perhaps a smartphone connected to the Internet.
Short-sighted you say? No, I've merely learned my lessons.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Improving security cost more and does more than a BS laws, but Bad Security (BS) laws only cost a few politicians and will exempt TV makers and Cable/Sat providers from all liability. Corporate-Welfare is best for the Plutocrat Republic, never good for US.
Hack2Secure
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
You're not supposed to use Toys 'R Us as a place to meet new girlfriends, unless you're talking about the moms.
Write failed: Broken pipe
To upgrade the firmware enabling a Just Scan mode that the (lazy / incompetent / brain-damaged - take your pick) engineers at Samsung neglected to include in the default set of aspect ratios. It beggared belief that an aspect ratio that just displays the picture without adjustment wasn't included in the first place. Especially considering the damn thing has a VGA port and it was obviously meant to support input from a PC. A massive pain in the arse it was too - it needed a custom serial cable I had to put together myself from iffy specs I found online, with the (actually official) firmware update from another hobbyist site as Samsung didn't host it. Then there was the 30s or so sweating bullets as I thought I'd bricked my telly before the new firmware started running. I don't recommend it.
Hmm - never meant to post that as AC. I wondered why I was asked for a CAPTCHA...
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
FFS their Jan/Feb 2012 issue was of Lindsey Lohan, photoshopped to hell and back.
And I thought photoshopping was used to to improve pictures...
That's 'Cylon-American', you insensitive clod!!! 'Toaster' is offensive to us!
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.