Early this week Samsung sent a tweet to remind users of its smart TVs to run malware scans on their TVs every few weeks virus scanning software the TVs come inbuilt with. The now deleted tweet read: Scanning your computer for malware viruses is important to keep it running smoothly. This is also true for your QLED TV if it’s connected to WiFi! Prevent malicious software attacks on your TV by scanning for viruses on your TV every few weeks
The tweet was posted alongside an accompanying video showing how to do it that had already accumulated 200,000 views.
Just in case you missed how to virus check your Samsung TV before the tweet was deleted pic.twitter.com/bJctBQo8F6
— Leo Kelion (@LeoKelion) June 17, 2019
Criticism
The recent announcement was not welcomed well
if your TV needs a virus scanner you fucked up pretty bad
— Internet of Shit (@internetofshit) June 17, 2019
Samsung should take this responsibility up their own hands by automatically updating the Tizen OS for you.
https://twitter.com/kubev_com/status/1140536715368513536
People shared their thoughts of now wanting to back to the era of dumb TVs
The best tv is a screen-only. So make one and put all the smart stuff in a separate box.
— Sander (@s40box) June 17, 2019
If you’re planning to buy a smart TV, this recent announcement will put you off going that road
https://twitter.com/johnregehr/status/1140656042826616832
In 2017, WikiLeaks revealed that the CIA had “Weeping Angel” software that could make Samsung TVs be listening devices. Samsung later released a post sharing the security features of its TVs.
There’s a reason why my TV isn’t connected to the internet, never has been, never will be.
— Søren Kjærsgaard (@oz1lqo) June 17, 2019
This is not the first incident to raise your security concerns over smart Tvs. Vizio Smart TVs were discovered to have software that collected users viewing data without their consent installed. The company paid $2.2m to the FTC to settle these charges. Other incidents include this one about ransomware infection plus this one shared on Reddit about LG TV’s getting infected too. Other smart TVs come lacking preloaded security measures thus becoming vulnerable to malware such as the CVE-2019-12477.
