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from the how-do-you-put-a-tinfoil-hat-on-an-antenna? dept.
BBC News is reporting that Smart TVs subverted by radio attack. The attack uses the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) standard that is widely supported in smart television sets sold in Europe. The HbbTV system was designed to help broadcasters exploit the internet connection of a smart TV to add extra information to programmes or so advertisers can do a better job of targeting viewers. The story goes on to note:
The attack exploits loopholes in widely used technology that helps smart TVs receive tailored adverts. Once hijacked, the TVs could be made to send messages on behalf of attackers, find other vulnerable devices in a home or launch other attacks across the net. Detecting and stopping the attack would be difficult, said the researchers.
This could be used in a wide-spread attack to subvert hundreds or even thousands of Smart TVs at once. If a user had logged into Facebook on their TV, one could use this attack to make Facebook posts on the target's behalf.
Though not mentioned in the article, I would think one could use a very directional antenna and target a specific location or TV.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday June 09 2014, @02:45PM
"I wanted to see if it would stream movies from my NAS."
Well, don't leave us in suspense... Did it? My guess is no.
The biggest problem with smart TVs is they're TVs. So for wife acceptance factor its all about the stand and/or mounting and exterior case and bezel and how it'll match existing stuff in the room blah blah blah. If the "smart" part actually worked in R+D one time, thats good enough to ship because there's too many other variables in the selection of a TV. So if the "smart" doesn't work and 99.9% of buyers don't want it / won't use it anyway, that's all good it'll be shipped in a broken state, and that's pretty much what consumers have come to expect from experience, "smart" means broken and dumb.
On the other hand I have a roku to stream amazon prime and it works great. The only reason to ever buy a roku is to do the "smart tv" stuff. So they make it bulletproof and reliable. So unlike a "smart tv" it actually matters if it works, and it works very well. My SIL's apple TV does exactly the same tasks and only costs twice as much, which for an apple product isn't all that bad.
This effect is the root cause of all the "apple iTV" rumors, seeing as this kind of market is Exactly how mobile phones were before the iPhone. So if apple shipped a smart TV, it would probably be the first smart TV ever shipped that doesn't absolutely suck at being smart.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Monday June 09 2014, @03:11PM
You're right, it didn't work. I currently use a WDTVLive box, very happy with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 09 2014, @04:35PM
Do you know a way to send a URL to the wdtv? Without custom wdtv firmware either. I just want to drag-and-drop a URL from firefox on my linux system and have the wdtv start streaming it (music or video).