It’s a fact that Internet of Things (IoT) devices including Smart TVs, Plugs and CCTV cameras etc, are highly vulnerable to cyber attacks, but now a new technique to hack into smart TVs has been developed by Oneconsult, allowing hackers to take control of the TV without even physically touching the device. As per reports, this new technique allows hackers to hijack smart TVs remotely essentially enabling them to either spy on the users or to perform DDoS attacks.

Rafael Scheel, a cybersecurity consultant said: “Once a hacker has control over the TV of an end user, he can harm the user in a variety of ways, “Among many others, the TV could be used to attack further devices in the home network or to spy on the user with the TV’s camera and microphone.”

Mechanics of the Hack:

The scheme involves sending malicious signals through DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) to gain root access on a targeted Smart TV. The worst part of this hack is that it could be done remotely and an attacker could only be caught when transmitting the malicious signals in real time. If that is done, the possibility of finding the hacker is minimal. Furthermore, once the attack is performed not even rebooting or performing a factory reset can save your device.

According to Scheele, almost all the smart TVs which relies on Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV), a technology supported by virtually every smart TV manufacturer, can be victimized using this technique, underlying a major security flaw in the smart TVs.

The hack was performed at the European Broadcasting Union Media Cyber Security Seminar this February, and the security experts demonstrated it by hacking two of the latest models of Samsung, and it is likely to work against a wide variety of smart TVs.

It is worth mentioning that WikiLeaks revealed a similar hacking technique used by the CIA to hack Smart TVs and now the hack is discovered by security firms as well. If proper measures are not taken soon, the result could be devastating for IoT industry and products like Smart TVs, wireless doorbell camera, and smart cars etc.

Image Credit: Pixels/Tookapic