Malware Targets Smart TVs

Your PC isn’t the only connected device to be targeted by malware malefactors.

Symantec security researcher Candid Wueest experimented on her smart TV, running the Android OS, and found it easy to infect with ransomware. Smart TVs running Tizen, WebOS, or Firefox OS may be no safer. Your TV is most likely to get an infection through a USB port, browsing an infected Website, or downloading an infected app. An attacker on the same network path might get the Wi-Fi password or hijack DNS requests.

Not all smart TVs use SSL encryption, and some of those that do use it don’t exactingly verify the certificate—so something as seemingly safe as a software update may infect the TV. For more details see Wueest’s blog post at symantec.com/connect/blogs/how-my-tv-got-infected-ransomware-and-what-you-can-learn-it.

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