According to a report by the U.S. "Fortune" magazine on February 7, the U.S. Consumer Review conducted a safety review of some smart TV brands and found that there are security vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit for millions of smart TVs, including Samsung and TCL.
Although hackers can not steal sensitive data such as credit card numbers through security breaches, they can manipulate the TV, play offensive videos, install unwanted apps, or scroll through channels suddenly.
"Consumer Reports" emphasize that with the increasing popularity of Internet TV, people can easily use streaming media video services such as Netflix on television.However, if these TVs have exploits available to hackers, online connection may make For example, according to technology news site Ars Technica, in 2012, security researchers said they can crack and control some of Samsung's smart TVs.
Consumer Reports tested a flawed TCL smart TV with Roku streaming software installed on it and other TV makers using Roku software including Hisense, Philips, Sharp, Hitachi, Ying Ya and RCA Of the TV may be affected by the loopholes.
Roku streaming video software includes a so-called application programming interface or API that third-party developers can use to build their own smartphone app that does the same thing as a TV remote control.However, Consumer Reports calls the API Very 'unsafe' and may be exploited by hackers.If the user is using a smartphone or a personal computer on a Wi-Fi network connected to a smart TV and visiting a malicious website or downloading an app containing malware code, it is possible that the television Suffer hacker attacks.
However, Roku argues in a blog post about Consumer Reports that it is "misdescriptive." Roku said there is no security risk for user accounts and the Roku platform using the API, and users can turn it off This remote control function.
Consumer Reports also found similar vulnerabilities on Samsung smart TVs that do not use Roku software, a Samsung spokesman said they are investigating the issue and will be releasing software updates this year that could fix other related vulnerabilities .
