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Android Ransomware Infects LG Smart TV, Company 'Refuses' To Help (bleepingcomputer.com)
Security firms have been warning us for more than a year about the possibility of Android malware jumping from phones and tablets to other Android-powered devices, such smart TVs. The latest incident involving ransomware on a smart TV involves software engineer Darren Cauthon, who revealed that the LG smart TV of one of his family members was infected with ransomware right on Christmas day. What's worse? He claims LG wouldn't help him with perform factory reset of the device. From a report: Based on a screenshot Cauthon posted online, the smart TV appears to be infected with a version of the Cyber. Police ransomware, also known as FLocker, Frantic Locker, or Dogspectus. The infected TV is one of the last generations of LG smart TVs that ran Google TV, a smart TV platform developed by Google together with Intel, Sony, and Logitech. Google TV launched in 2010, but Google discontinued the project in June 2014. In the meantime, LG has moved on from Google TV, and the company's TVs now run WebOS. Cauthon says he tried to reset the TV to factory settings, but the reset procedure available online didn't work. When the software engineer contacted LG, the company told him to visit one of their service centers, where one of its employees could reset his TV.
"The company told him to visit one of their service centers, where one of its employees could reset his TV."
funny, that seems like a legit offer of help.
While they do seem to be using that as a motto right now, LG doesn't really even stand for "Life's Good" but rather "Lucky-Goldstar", which is a combination of two brands which merged to form the company. Amusingly, while Goldstar sold electronics, Lucky was more commonly associated with detergents and hygiene products.
Asked to detail how he got infected with the ransomware, Cauthon said "They [the relatives] said they downloaded an app to watch a movie. Halfway thru movie, tv froze. Now boots to this."
10-to-1 odds his relatives downloaded some shady app promising "free movies" (aka pirated movies), and was downloaded from a shady source. This generally doesn't happen by itself, and it's pretty rare to get infected by stuff from the official store. Yes, it happens, but the *vast* majority of Android malware is on 3rd party sites.
The general public needs to learn that downloading stuff from unverified 3rd party sources is going to get you infected sooner or later. To be perfectly honest, this is why Apple's walled garden with locked-down devices may be better for your typical user. Most people certainly can't handle the responsibility of keeping a modern PC clean, and it appears they can't even keep a smart TV malware free. Remember the saying "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"? Well, time and time again we see that users seem to have just enough knowledge to thoroughly screw themselves and their devices.
I feel for them having to shell out a few hundred to learn this lesson, but its a lesson worth learning before they get infected with a banking trojan on their PC. Of course, we don't really know the whole story, so I'm sort of reading between the lines and could certainly be wrong about this. But I doubt it.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.