Schumer Urges TV Industry to Work Together on Security Solution for Smart TVs

Speaking in front of the P.C. Richard & Son Union Square location in New York Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged TV makers to beef up security in connected TVs. “The problem is that hackers can hack into your TV and watch you for whatever purpose,” Schumer said in a segment that appeared on a local CBS news report. In a news release issued Sunday, Schumer said major TV manufacturers should create a “uniform standard of security” that would be implemented in all new Internet and “video-enabled” televisions. Schumer cited smart TVs with built-in webcams, microphones and Internet access that allow viewers to access online media and make video calls.

Schumer was reacting to a report coming out of the Black Hat USA security conference in Las Vegas last week in which a research group presented evidence that a “flaw in so-called ’smart TVs'” allowed the group to hack into connected TVs, “activating the microphones and embedded cameras and monitoring them remotely.” Hackers could, theoretically, view and record “everything going on in the room that contained the television,” Schumer said. “Even more disturbing,” he added, “security experts have suggested that few of these new televisions have strong security measures, or any security measures at all."

Presenters found a “a major problem” in different models of 2012 Samsung Smart TVs, Schumer said in his statement, where researchers were able to tap into the TVs’ Web browser, access the built-in camera, hack the browser and “lead the users to any website.” Schumer compared TVs to computers without “the security features like firewalls, making them vulnerable to hackers."

Schumer said the security gaps in TVs are a problem “for all manufacturers” and proposed an industry-wide solution that would “reduce the cost and increase the ease with which it could be implemented.” Schumer told a CBS reporter in New York that hackers could “be able, once you use a credit card for Netflix, to get that credit card number.” Netflix didn’t comment.

According to Schumer, manufacturers have suggested consumers put tape over a TV’s camera or unplug the TV when it’s not in use in an attempt to thwart hackers, but Schumer said “the burden shouldn’t be on the consumers alone.” In his letter to TV makers, Schumer said, “For a TV to secretly function as a spy cam would violate a fundamental expectation of privacy in the American home."

CEA and connected TV manufacturers Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG and Vizio didn’t comment.