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Eavesdropping With a Smart TV
An anonymous reader writes "A article on The Register titled talks about a demo that was given in London last month by NCC Group where they turned a modern TV into an audio bug. 'The devices contain microphones and cameras that can be utilized by applications — Skype and similar apps being good examples. The TV has a fairly large amount of storage, so would be able to hold more than 30 seconds of audio – we only captured short snippets for demonstrations purposes. A more sophisticated attack could store more audio locally and only upload it at certain times, or could even stream it directly to a server, bypassing the need to use any of the device’s storage.' Given the Snowden revelations and what we've seen previously about older tech being deprecated, how can we protect ourselves with the modern devices (other than not connecting them to the Internet)?"
we must band together and build wooden robots and wooden devices powered by steam. together we will help stop the flow of electrical current and put an end to this modern day madness!
Seriously, this is precisely what Orwell predicted in 1984. I am going to find everyone I ever accused of being a tinfoil hat paranoic and apologize to them in bended knee...
Buy a plain, regular computer LCD display. Connect Apple TV to display via HDMI, connect Apple TV to audio with optical output.
There, no physical spying inside your house.
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That won't work.
There's a good breakdown on infowars about why it won't work:
http://www.infowars.com/91497/
But you can't just take what's on infowars without a grain of salt, so here's a video on intel's website where they substantiate everything, but with a positive spin
http://www.intel.com/content/w...
We need open hardware. The hardware being made in the factories is not trustworthy.
For the majority who won't click links and read articles, the gist is, there's a 3G radio antenna and a special dedicated processor inside of your CPU, and it can be used to either take complete control of your device, or to destroy it. All the details are there in Intel's marketing material.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
1984: A cautionary tale about the power of the state and the dangers of ubiquitous surveillance.
2014: A real life documentary in which everyone carries around a mobile phone, everyone's car includes trackers with automatic remote location capabilities, major population centres are observed by numerous cameras logging to central databases under government control and backed by technology doing everything from facial recognition to gait analysis, even the privacy of your own home isn't private because there are literally cameras tucked away on your TV, and lots of people are OK with this as long as the pizza is still hot when it gets delivered and arrives in time for tonight's reality TV show.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
There's a good breakdown on infowars about why it won't work:
http://www.infowars.com/91497/
Most Intel's hardware doesn't ship with vPro, so it's unlikely to be much of a problem. Also, most smart-TVs and the likes still ship with ARM-chips, not Intel.
All these comments, and not even a nod?
*Ahem*
In Soviet Russia, TV watches you.
Never attribute to stupidity what is easily explained by malice. The enemy is active, intelligent, malicious and not easily pinned down.
For example, there's a whole host of conversation going on these days about "Why does the NSA fail to implement basic security measures that could have prevented Snowden from doing what he did."
The answer is to act just as they do, and look at the metadata. Don't try to put your finger on who exactly did this or that, but try to understand their nature, goals and motivations... to define them in the abstract, and act against them in the abstract.
Who is served by an easily compromised NSA? Organized crime? Multinational corporations? Israeli intelligence? Doesn't matter exactly who, if you understand their nature, you can fuck with their agenda without ever knowing who they are.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Are you aware that if you take an old television apart and go poking your fingers around in there, you'll very likely be killed, even if the television has been unplugged for over a year. They contain capacitors that will hold a deadly charge for a very long time after you unplug them.
Which is a non sequitar. If you are going into the television, you discharge the capacitor. The closest thing I can come up with is that you are sying the cap is a power source. Won't work.
You really think something they designed in these types of capabilities for espionage, but are going to be stymied by you unplugging the thing?
The US government controls what hardware is contained in those televisions. They forced the issue when they were moving away from free-to-air television. If you've been coming to slashdot for a long time, you read all about it.
So, what evidence do you have of this? How is the "snooping" device powered? What frequencies does it operate on? All this is very simple stuff. You can't hide power sources, you can't hide RF. You can't power unpowered things. I could open the back of a smart TV and find the needed components pretty quickly. You'd need a battery, an RF transmitter, and antenna. Looking, and a multimeter, and a cheap radio (I'd use a spectrum analyzer) are all you need. I forgot - a screwdriver. But trivial to find. Can't change the laws of physics, no matter how advanced the paranoia.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.