Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The two faces of Chuck Schumer: NSA spying: Good, Your hacked TV spying on you: Bad...

Let's address the real threat of the government collecting every email, phone call and text in some giant computer complex in Utah before we address our TV's being hacked.
NEW YORK, NY - U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today called on major television manufacturers to create a uniform standard of security to be used in all new internet and video enabled televisions that would prevent hackers from spying on consumers.
Last week, a security research group presented to a technology conference in Las Vegas, highlighting a flaw in so-called "smart" TVs that allowed them to hack into the appliances, activating the microphones and embedded cameras and monitoring them remotely.  The same methods applied to a television in a home would allow hackers to view and record everything going on in the room that contained the television.  Even more disturbing, security experts have suggested that few of these new televisions have strong security measures, or any security measures at all. 
Today Schumer called on the main television manufacturers to improve the security software used in these smart TVs by coming together and creating a uniform minimum security standard that could be followed by everyone in the industry. The gaps in security create a problem for all manufacturers, and an industry wide solution would reduce the cost and increase the ease with which it could be implemented.  Schumer noted that most new TV models include microphones, cameras and internet access, but consumers are not as vigilant as they are with their computers because hacking appliances is still a relatively new and unknown phenomenon. 

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