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.'"

Comments

Heh

[jeesis]

No longer will I need a universal remote to screw with the neighbors television.

Re:Heh

[AmiMoJo]

I recently got a Panasonic smart TV. There is an Android app that lets you control it from your phone/tablet, and you can push photos and video directly from the device onto the TV screen. It works over wifi and there isn't any kind of authentication or code. In other words if your neighbours have insecure wifi and a Panasonic TV you and display whatever you like on their screen.

I'm sure many other smart TV platforms are similarly insecure, in that they assume your wifi network is a secure environment.

Re:Heh

[mcgrew]

My ten year old analog TV does that -- I have a computer plugged into it. The only difference is the computer isn't inside the TV. I can bluetooth pictures from my phone, wifi files to it from my notebook, and I use a wireless mouse as a remote control and the internet for "cable".

But nobody's hacked it yet. In fact, in 30 years of computing I've only been hit three times (my house has been broken into more often), none with any permanent damage. The first was the Michelangelo virus I got by putting one of my own floppies (five inch variety) in a computer at work, and learned that being smart is no defense against viruses -- the woman who infected the work computer held a PhD, but she was pretty clueless about computers.

The second time was a targeted attack by a bunch of young people I'd made fun of on my web site (I made fun of everyone, I was the Don Rickles of the Quake world). All they did was replace a picture of a bunch of down's syndrome kids with a basketball team. I wonder of those guys are now lulzsec? It was over 15 years ago.

The third time was when Sony rooted my box with their goddamned XCP trojan. That one really fucked up my computer BAD, took quite a while to repair the damage Sony's vandalism had done.

So judging from my own (admittedly limited) experience with being cracked, I worry far more about some big international corporation that has no fear of law enforcement than I am some Russian cyberburglar or teenage cybervandal.

And hey, this is only tengentally on topic but can we take our verbage back that was stolen and twisted by the muggles? Don't call them "hackers" unless they wrote the malware. Call them cybervandals or cyberburglars instead. Lets (at least among ourselves) reserve the word "hacker" for someone who writes quick and dirty one time use code and folks who modify hardware. I mean, come on, I've been both a hardware hacker and a code hacker, but I've never broken into someone's computer without their begging me to (working of a bios password on an old laptop now, have to take the whole damned thing apart to do it).

Re:Heh

[cyber-vandal]

You insensitive clod!

Non-functional requirements

[thsths]

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...

Re:Non-functional requirements

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Why blame the engineers for that? The engineers that I know are trying to make things the best they can be, but they're prevented by short-sighted penny pinchers that make constricting demands.

Why not yet ?

[nonos]

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 ?

Never gonna give you up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bonus points for the first ones to rickroll on every channel at once.

And... go

Dumb displays

[mehrotra.akash]

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

Re:Dumb displays

[Chrisq]

I prefer my TV's to be dumb displays

... Like your women?

Re:Dumb displays

[cbope]

The more functionality that becomes "built-in", the quicker that "display device" will become obsolete. Is it any wonder why the manufacturers are pushing smart TV's so hard?

First, there was TV!
Then widescreen!
Then HD Ready!
Then Full HD!
Then LED!
Then 3D!
Now Smart TV!

The rate of obsolescence has really increased in the past 15 years or so with TV's. That's why I waited for Full HD to drop into my price range, and I bought a good, high-end LCD of a decent size with HDMI inputs. I can plug anything into it. I do not miss LED, 3D or smart TV. I can play back blu-ray at full quality, which is enough. I have an HTPC connected to it for browsing and media playback.

I prefer to keep my displays dumb and put the smarts elsewhere. That is unless you want to buy a new TV every few years... (I certainly have better things to spend my money on)

I have a challenge to all hackers out there

[AuMatar]

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).

Re:I have a challenge to all hackers out there

[Cornwallis]

Playing "Heidi" might be more appropriate.

More concerned by the TV companies than hackers

[travellerjohn]

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!

[flyneye]

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.

Re:Think!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh hey, it's you:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-tel,429/

Get off your high horse. There are plenty of good, informative shows for intelligent people to watch. And despite the popular meme, there actally are shows that are pretty well done. Not everything on TV is lowest-common-denominator crap.

Re:Can't hack what you don't have

[DNS-and-BIND]

Area resident Jonathan Green does not own a television, a fact he repeatedly points out to friends, family, and coworkersâ"as well as to his mailman, neighborhood convenience-store clerks, and the man who cleans the hallways in his apartment building..

I gotta ask, do you have the same beard as the guy in the article?

Re:Shopping channels

[ByOhTek]

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.