I recently bought a smart tv for my office. I don’t all the time, but occasionally I also sleep in there. For the longest time, I used one of my laptops, desktop or just my phone to watch whatever I wanted to watch. It was never important to me to have a huge screen staring back at me…. It got to the point though, for whatever reason, that the sound coming from my non-tv equipment was just not cutting it. I never could really hear the greatest, but it was getting to the point I was really struggling.
So anyway, I went out and bought an inexpensive 32 inch smart tv for around $150.. It was actually the first time in my life that I bought a television, let alone a smart one, for myself. This was three months ago. I placed it in my attic office, right in front of the window air conditioner. It gets so hot in there that the house’s central air just can’t keep up… So to keep it as cool as possible (I also have a server and several crypto miners set up in the room) I have to have supplemental cold air so that my equipment doesn’t die on me from having a heat stroke… They like staying cool.. they’re funny like that.
One day, I had it on ( I was watching a relaxing screen saver type video that calms me while I work) and it started trying to turn itself off and all kinds of other funky stuff… It was as though someone had control of my television.. It was quite unsettling actually. I chalked it up to someone else in the house must be connected to the TV… However, that wasn’t the case. I disconnected it from wifi and the same thing was happening… It was then I realized that no one was “hacking” into my television, that it must be something else.
After doing some research, I discovered that since it sat in front of the window a/c for so long, it was messing it up internally… Without going into the boring specifics, that was the problem..
It got me thinking though… I knew it was possible, but how exactly would someone get into your tv and why would they even want to? Well remember, your smart tv is probably connected to several of your online accounts, including Amazon and Google, the big ones. But they (whoever “they” is) could also just be an a$$hole trying to mess up the good day you’re having.
So….. The short answer is yes, your smart TV can be hacked. The long answer is more complicated.
The most common method of hacking a smart TV is to use its built-in (internal) operating system or software called the T-Lounge (TM). This software can be exploited to take over the TV completely and control it remotely. This can be used for things like changing the channel, changing the volume, and skipping or rewinding videos.
It is possible for hackers to access the content stored on your TV’s hard drive as well. This includes personal pictures and videos as well as downloaded content from apps such as Hulu or Netflix. If someone has access to your TV, they can hack your accounts on these applications and view content that they should not have access to.
To protect yourself from hacking, follow these tips:
Do not store important information on your TV such as your passwords or financial information. store this electronically in a secure place that only you have access to.
This is a BIG one… ONLY install applications that you trust such as apps from Amazon or Google Play.
Turn on two-factor authentication on all of your accounts when possible. This makes it significantly harder for someone to gain access to your accounts by just using your phone number or email address alone.
If your smart tv starts acting funny one day, don’t panic… Chances are good it hasn’t been hacked but something internally is going on… Check to see if it’s in front of a heat or other source of circulating air… Also check to see if someone in your household may be accidentally connected…. You can start by disconnecting the tv from the wifi and go from there.
It’s not an easy task to hack into your smart tv… Chances are good if your tv is behaving strangely, it’s one of the things I mentioned above.
