Many Americans purchased smart TVs on Black Friday and planned to get more on Cyber Monday, but the FBI wants you to know a few things before you drop a couple of thousand dollars on a system that could steal your privacy.
With the growth of Netflix, Hulu, Disney, and other streaming services, smart TVs are like regular television sets. Still, with an internet connection and with that, many saw the internet-connected televisions as a cord cutter’s super dream: no high cable costs and the ability to choose what you want without long term contracts.
But as we have learned through trial and error, anything connected to the internet has a vulnerability which won’t allow you to be safe. The major problem with internet-connected items is that it opens up smart TVs to security vulnerabilities and hackers. Today, smart TVs come with a camera and a microphone and manufacturers often don’t put security as a priority.
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FBI’s Portland field office posted a warning on its website about the risks that smart TVs pose.
“Beyond the risk that your TV manufacturer and app developers may be listening and watching you, that television can also be a gateway for hackers to come into your home. A bad cyber actor may not be able to access your locked-down computer directly, but it is possible that your unsecured TV can give him or her an easy way in the backdoor through your router,” wrote the FBI.
The FBI office also warned that hackers could and will take control of your unsecured smart TV, including the camera and microphone, to watch and listen in.
How do you fight back? Place black tape over an unused smart TV camera, keep your smart TV up-to-date with the latest patches and fixes, and read the privacy policy to understand better what your smart TV is capable of.
Not to start a major panic, active attacks and exploits against smart TVs are rare, but that doesn’t mean Pandora’s box won’t be opene, and your home system will be attacked. Every smart TV comes with its manufacturer’s software, needless to say, they are at the mercy of an irregular security patching schedule.
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Earlier this year, we saw how easy it was to hijack Google’s Chromecast streaming stick and broadcast random videos to thousands of victims.
With the FBI reaching out to the public and alerting consumers, they must have some information about something coming down the pike.
Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported that some of the most popular smart TV makers such as Samsung and LG collect tons of information about what users are watching to help advertisers better target viewers and to suggest what to watch next.
After everything is said and done, an internet smart TV might be the dumbest thing on the planet.
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Buy your t.v. then get a tv tech to remove camera and mic.
Would love to bite their heads off, but my dentures are not that strong. Lol. Can still harangue with the best though.
I don’t have a smartphone, just a prepaid clam phone, no monthly, the phone cost me $79.00 8 years ago..anytime not used rolls to the next year. My TV is not smart and I don’t have cable, just a outside antenna that i setup myself 15 years ago. 66 stations of garbage crystal clear picture and a dvd with 1200hrs of hard drive recording time…no monthly bills. In house phone message machine ..90% hang up after the message…..Merry Christmas, Give to the Salvation Army…instead of the cable company.
Get’em girl bite their heads off!!!! Grrrrrrr!!!!!!
The attempted coup by the Dem operatives has about run its course and petered out. The problem is that these past three years have hindered the POTUS from reaching his maximum potential. Maybe a special one time only deal that would give POTUS a third term, so he can accomplish the things he originally intended to.
I manage just fine with out them too.
Dude, there are smart refrigerators and washing machines now!
Avast is great, far, FAR superior to Norton, or MacAfee, I used Avast’s free version for two years before I got the paid one, and it caught crap and viruses with ease, things that the other two practically held the freaking E-doors open for.
Just that fact makes this look like a concerted effort to screw the economy.
Shades of Big Bother! I won’t be getting one of those. The Deep State can stay out of my house. A Smart TV? I already have a Smart Phone and a PC anyway.
Big Brother is watching and listening!
I am an opiniated, cantankerous old woman and if they want to monitor me, have at it. I can give them an earful of my opinions. Of course they are going to die of boredom as I generally go nowhere and certainly don’t have the strength or gumption to riot, block roads or in general cause a ruckus. But they can listen in anytime.
Plasma is long gone, LCD now!
The FBI just want to make sure absolutely nothing is going to film them shoot your dog.
Well, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion. I got the Avast because my computer did freeze up from a virus before I got it. Avast brought it back and now intercepts all viruses automatically. And it does work!!!
all these anti-virus someware places have built in viruses, if not, how could they suck you into buying their crap. trust me on this. i installed a fresh from the pack windows o.s., and then installed a virus checker, guess what? it found something like 50 viruses on the system that i had just installed windows on. by the way, it was not hooked up to the net in any way at all. so where did that crap come from? easy, the virus disk. they all do this.
Sorry, But why would anyone want to down load porn? The crap is streaming live every second on the internet, it has it has no plot what so ever! This is a bad habit to get into anyway.
Happy, to have no need of a cell phone or smart TV.
Isn’t it interesting how they waited until black friday is already past and cyber monday is already here, to warn of this. I guess these “smart” TVs didn’t exist before friday.
Those fictional “Big Brother” TV sets in Orwell’s “1984” are no longer fiction.
I contacted Panasonic about this last year. Trying to shutdown anything wifi enabled unless we choose to have it on. They sent instructions which I followed. Hopefully our TV is not constantly looking for and sending a wifi signal.
there is always, something or somebody smarter.
I have a very good anti-virus called Avast Premium Security, not their free version, and they told me to avoid the notices of the Windows software updates, and to let the Avast automatic update advisory tell me when to update through them. I, prior to that, had experienced the same problems you just described. One more warning: Some people get multiple anti-virus programs thinking it will make them doubly safe!!! WRONG thing to do, as they nullify each other and leave you wide open. Hope this helps you. Now, I have more from Avast than their Premium Security, I also have Premium Cleanup, Premium Password Saver, and Premium Tech Support, so I’m pretty well covered. I recommend it, or something similar. The free stuff that’s offered is OK, but it doesn’t cover all the stuff I just mentioned. GOOD LUCK!!!
Plasma is simply the type of screen. Smart TVs also have plasma screens.
The FBI should know…they are involved in the TV-spying management.
The FBI just spent 3 years helping their Democrat masters attempt (and fail) to frame the POTUS. Until the organization is reformed I wouldn’t trust them to warn me about bicycle thieves.
Everytime I download the latest ‘security updates’ – the device I’m using stops working, because some app already installed, which wuz working perfectly fine, suddenly stops working and I’m searching for another ‘patch’, ‘fix’, or something to reverse the ‘security updates’.
Which is ‘why’ I stopped/delayed downloading all those ‘security updates’, which were suppose to make my world easier!
Technology today is pushing all humanity towards an absolute form of slavery, the distracted masses of sheeple have not yet awoken to this fact. Combined with social crediting scores this will be a living nightmare with the social point system applied to everyday life. The harm now being inflicted on us is rational and deliberate. The real function of the “SMART” TVs and phones is to render all the population ignorant and manageable. look at https://bestguru.info/smart-phones/ to really open your eyes about what is happening.
Ah, the beauty of plasma.
AND, let us not forget the FBI is infamous (Va Beach) for injecting kiddie porn into regular/legal porn downloads.