Spoiler Alert: Your Tv Will Be Hacked

#1 PCWorld

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Posted 17 April 2012 - 02:16 PM

Post your comments for Spoiler Alert: Your TV Will Be Hacked here

#2 encohen

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Posted 17 April 2012 - 04:07 PM

Wow, thanks Roger. Who knew? Well, I have a non-internet TV so, for now, I am safe, for now. Thanks again. By the way, what things should one do to secure one's IT TV?

#3 butlerwm

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Posted 18 April 2012 - 09:17 PM

My wife and I (both from law enforcement backgrounds) have always said, someone's gotta die before measures are taken to make something safe (or safer, as the case may be). The mantra applies to pretty much every aspect of life in our society (and every one that's come before).

A dangerous intersection never gets a traffic signal until there's a fatal traffic accident. Likewise, automobile flaws are never corrected until the flaw causes several accidents and deaths. Then after a protracted period of denial, the automaker either recalls the defective vehicle or provide a fix.

The common factor in every case is always the same; money. Neither government agencies or businesses can seem to see beyond how much money they can save or make "today". Tomorrow is always something to be addressed when it gets here. After all, why worry about something that hasn't brought attention to itself. It's the same mentality that governs the logic of "it's not a crime unless you get caught."

Well... actually it is; just like the tree that falls in the forest makes a noise even when there's no one around to hear it. But when the fix can cost $1 per unit and you sell a million units per quarter, then in a years time you've spent four million dollars that you don't have to until someone dies. If no one dies over the first five years, that's money in the back. If after five years someone dies, you get to deny it for another year before you finally have to do anything about and even if you have to pay some sort of fine, it will generally be substantially smaller than the profits you make over the period of time you did nothing, so the benefits outweigh the cost.

I have to wonder if China's method of addressing such issues and the people who participate in them is better than ours. When a Chinese company making baby food was found to be using a substance that was poisonous and killing babies, the heads of the company were tried one day and executed the next.

Works for me...

It may be a bit extreme relative to device security issues but the idea remains the same. There's no excuse for devices to be produced that are known to be insecure when taking steps to make them more secure are so simple from the onset. Greed is not a viable defense.

#4 waldojim

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Posted 18 April 2012 - 09:31 PM

My TV won't be hacked. It isn't online... and I don't care.

This post has been edited by waldojim: 18 April 2012 - 09:31 PM

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" -- Isaac Asimov

Spoiler

#5 Tinman1957

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Posted 19 April 2012 - 04:25 PM

If I want to go on-line, I use my computer. If I want to watch a show or movie, I use my TV. I have no desire to do both at once, but that's just me. There's a whole lot of folks that are just ecstatic about this....

#6 MLStrand56

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Posted 20 April 2012 - 04:43 AM

Tinman1957, on 19 April 2012 - 04:25 PM, said:

If I want to go on-line, I use my computer. If I want to watch a show or movie, I use my TV. I have no desire to do both at once....

This has nothing to do with YOU surfing the internet & watching TV at the same time. It's about TV's that can access the internet for content & THEY are always OL & unprotected. Suppose YOU subscribe to basic cable, & I hack into your TV, open up all the Premium & Porn channels, then redirect those channels to MY house/TV. When the cable company finds out that YOU are getting more than YOU pay for, they send YOU a bill for all the Premium & Porn channels that I have redirected to MY TV. LOL......I have Free movie channels & porn & YOU have to pay for it. You're right, it's not a problem.......for ME!!!

MLStrand56