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Samsung asks users to please virus-scan their TVs
Yesterday on Twitter, Samsung's US support team reminded everyone to regularly—and manually—virus-scan their televisions.
Samsung's team followed this up with a short video showing someone in a conference room going 16 button-presses deep into the system menu of a Samsung QLED TV to activate the television's built-in virus-scan, which is apparently "McAfee Security for TV."
Unsurprisingly, Samsung got immediate pushback on these tweets and almost as immediately deleted them.
This may raise some questions about Samsung's practices and what we as consumers should be expecting of modern devices. The fact that Samsung's malware scanner is McAfee (and that McAfee's only customer for the service is apparently Samsung) raises questions about the real value and intent of the service: is Samsung paying McAfee for what has to be a pretty trivial application, or is McAfee paying Samsung for brand promotion? But even if we skip the brand-related cynicism and take the concept at face value, we are left with a few questions.
Ars reached out to Samsung with the questions below, but the below statement the company provided didn't answer them. The following statement is attributed to Samsung:
Samsung takes security very seriously and our products and services are designed with security in mind. We recently shared information about one of the preventative security features on our Smart TVs, in order to show consumers proactive steps they can take on their device. We want to clarify that this was simply a way to educate consumers about one of the features included in our products and was only posted because we believed that consumers would find it informative.
[...] The best way to keep your big, expensive smart TV safe is never to allow it access to your network in the first place. The consumer electronics space is packed chock-full with inexpensive, high-quality streaming devices that typically have better interfaces and more options than most smart televisions anyway. Roku and Amazon 4K-streaming players both start at less than $50; in the unlikely event one of those becomes compromised, "recycle the bad one and buy a new one, probably from a competing brand" seems like a perfectly reasonable response.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Thursday June 20 2019, @03:39PM (3 children)
I use a good old CRT TV and an Over The Air digital converter box. (Works great, BTW and no $$$ monthly fees!)
At a few times, some of the broadcast stations have managed to embed SOMETHING in to the channel preview information that will cause the box to crash and shut down when I hit preview. I'd like to think that software can't alter the firmware, and anything in random memory would clear after a power cycle, that should be true with this kind of device, but it may not be.
Point is, a "smart TV" is a billion times more complicated. Anyone who thinks there are no vulnerabilities is an idiot consumertard.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday June 20 2019, @04:34PM (2 children)
You would save $$$ yearly in electricity costs, if you switched to a modern LCD/LED TV. I would recommend finding and purchasing one, before you can only get a "Smart" TV.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Thursday June 20 2019, @09:27PM (1 child)
More like a few cents. It's a very small TV. It doesn't use as much power as your corporate overlords would have you believe.
But you do have a point that anyone who wants a non "smart" TV should get one now. At the moment, places like Goodwill still re-sell old TVs, but you might notice most of them don't re-sell old computers. As TVs become "smart" enough they will fall in to the catagory of computers and cell phones, which means no more re-selling due to "privacy" policies... and bribes from TV manufacturers to keep people buying only new stuff.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday June 21 2019, @01:52PM
More than a few cents, but probably less than $100. Here's a random electricity calculator I found on the interwebs. https://energyusecalculator.com/electricity_lcdleddisplay.htm [energyusecalculator.com] Pretty interesting.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"