It took a year from proof of concept to in-the-wild attack, but ransomware for Android-based smart TVs is now here. As one victim discovered this Christmas, figuring out how to clean such an infection can be quite difficult.
Ransomware for Android phones has already been around for several years and security experts have warned in the past that it's only a matter of time until such malicious programs start affecting smart TVs, especially since some of them also run Android.
[...] Kansas-based software developer Darren Cauthon reported on Twitter on Dec. 25 that a family member accidentally infected his Android-based TV with ransomware after downloading a movie-watching app. The picture shared by Cauthon showed the TV screen with an FBI-themed ransom message.
[...] Eventually LG provided Cauthon with a solution that involved pressing and releasing two physical buttons on the TV in a particular order. This booted the TV, which runs the now defunct Android-based Google TV platform, into a recovery mode.
The Register also has additional details on the recovery method:
With the TV powered off, place one finger on the settings symbol then another finger on the channel down symbol. Remove finger from settings, then from channel down, and navigate using volume keys to the wipe data/ factory reset option. ®
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday January 04 2017, @09:37PM
Double bucky, you're the one!
You make my keyboard lots of fun.
Double bucky, an additional bit or two:
(Vo-vo-de-o!)
Control and meta, side by side,
Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide!
Double bucky! Half a thousand glyphs, plus a few!
Oh,
I sure wish that I
Had a couple of
Bits more!
Perhaps a
Set of pedals to
Make the number of
Bits four:
Double double bucky!
Double bucky, left and right
OR'd together, outta sight!
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of
Double bucky, I'm happy I heard of
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of you!
- The Great Quux
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 04 2017, @10:05PM
Yeah, that's right, shithead. Sidestep the issue of a secret reset sequence, and copypaste a obsolete joke about the number of keys on a space cadet keyboard. Do you know why your moronic fucking joke is obsolete?
A modern keyboard has more keys than a space cadet keyboard.
100 Key Space Cadet [wikimedia.org]
104 Key Standard Keyboard [wikimedia.org]
Kill yourself now, you motherfucking cunt.