Monday, August 5, 2013

Is Your TV Watching You?

http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/is-your-tv-watching-you/

Watching TV
Image courtesy of [graur razvan ionut] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
We all know the risks of our computer camera being hacked and someone on the other side could be visually intruding our home.  The paranoia of a cyber criminal watching us on the other side of our computer exists.  But what about your TV?  Today there are very high-end televisions that have “smart” PC-like features. These televisions have internet connectivity, apps, cameras, and microphones.  There has been a security hole discovered in some of the Samsung Smart TVs that show a little more work needs to be done before the consumer can feel safe watching it in the comforts of their own home.

The Flaw

The flaw with the Samsung Smart TV, is that there is a build-in camera and no one can even notice. While your watching TV, a hacker anywhere around the world has the ability to watch you. They aren’t only invading your privacy, but they could be stealing your bank account information and other private personal information by viewing everything you do on your smart TV.
Sansung has already been on the issue, researchers at iSEC Partners have informed the company already about the bugs. Now there has been a software update sent to all the Samsung users with these affected TVs.
Security cameras, lights, and central control systems are features that hackers are able to access remotely. Hackers are very often finding ways to steal our personal information and this is just another tackle from them. Hackers have the control to send us to any website of their choosing when we access these TVs for internet use. We may think we are logging into our bank account but this may be a login to their database signing away all of our personal information away.

Security and Safety

CNNMoney said, Samsung is taking this issue very seriously.
“The camera can be turned into a bezel of the TV so that the lens is covered, or disabled by pushing the camera inside the bezel. The TV owner can also unplug the TV from the home network when the Smart TV features are not in use.”
Samsung is recommending that customers use encrypted wireless access points for better protection. Also they suggest, if users are not using the cameras, then to put tape over it just in case.

References:
Your TV might be watching you – CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/01/technology/security/tv-hack/index.html
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Featured Image courtesy of [Idea go] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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