Samsung advise you to virus scan your TV

Everything is connected these days with many of us having a SmartTV in the living room and if it’s a Samsung then you may want to run the built in virus checker. Wait, you did know your TV had a virus checker didn’t you?

The Samsung Support USA Twitter account posted a video explaining how to run the software and suggested that owners should carry out the process “every few weeks” to “prevent malicious software attacks”. As you might expect the video, which had been “posted for customers’ education”, alarmed some owners, and was deleted shortly afterwards.

Security experts have suggested it would be better if Samsung updated it’s own firmware automatically and that “Trying to place the burden on users like this won’t work, at the very least, Samsung should provide an on-screen prompt if this were really necessary.”

The virus checker is hidden away on a sub-menu on some Samsung televisions, here’s how to get to it.

However, the chance of your television being infected is rather low. “There is a tiny number of known malware that might attack a TV,” said Ken Munro, of Pen Test Partners,”I’ve seen one case of a ransomware infection but the prospect of it happening to most users is very small.”

Whilst you are virus checking your TV may we also suggest you do the same for your smart fridge, your Alexa, your Nest home heating system, your FitBit, and your child’s LeapFrog device.

Samsung hit the headlines in 2015 when the advised customers not to discuss anything personal in front of their televisions. Samsung’s privacy policy explained “If your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party,” but failed to explain who the third party would be.

Source: BBC

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News Editor, very inappropriate, probs fancies your dad.

6 Comments

  1. Awww gawd no! NOT THE FRIDGE!

  2. The internet of things that shouldn’t be connected to the internet.

  3. I was a bit suspicious when the Twitch app was mysteriously removed from my Samsung TV; apparently it wasn’t an official app. I’ll remember to do this when I get home.

  4. There was a report on Click a while ago about IOT and how most devices connected to it have very little or no security at all. They showed how easy it was to mess with people’s hot tubs, kids toys among others but most worrying was how easy it is to take control of baby monitors.

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