An LG Smart TV Was Infected with Ransomware

On Christmas Day, 2016, a software engineer reported that his family members’ smart TV was hacked. Specifically, their LG smart TV was infected with ransomware. The type of ransomware that infected their TV was called Cyber.Police. This particular type is also known as Frantic Locker, Dogspectus, or FLocker.

As a recap, ransomware is a type of malware that blocks access to a system or device until the victim pays the hacker a sum of money. After the money is paid, the device or system will be unlocked. In this case, the smart TV was most likely infected by ransomware when the family installed a malicious app onto their TV. Unfortunately, this is a common incident for smartphones, too. That’s why it’s important to regularly scan your devices for malware:

Smart TVs Are Insecure

Unfortunately, smart TVs (and other smart appliances) aren’t as secure as they should be. One reason that they’re more insecure than your smartphone or computer is that they don’t receive frequent security and software updates. There has also been a lot of news lately about new malware that can: attack Wi-Fi routers, infect one device in order to spread malware to every device connected to the same network, and utilize insecure Internet of Things devices to attack a network. As these strains of malware improve, it only puts your smart TV more at risk of being hacked. Thus, the ability of your smart TV — which has access to your Wi-Fi, and typically has your credit card information stored on it (to purchase movies, etc.), among other sensitive data — to be hacked is now an even bigger deal.

No Minimum Standard for Device Security

Further, this could be a manufacturing issue, too. There is no minimum standard for device security in the US. If we really want to ensure that all of the smart products that we’re using are secure, we would encourage regulations to be passed to hold companies accountable for selling insecure products to consumers. The Obama Administration suggested such a measure, but unfortunately, it was never passed.