Snooping TV.

Yes, but then it breaks at the first update.

Owain

If they can do that, might as well just nobble your laptop too and use the mic on that. Far more likely to be of use than one in a TV.

According to one bit in the meja, this Samsung TV already uploads speech from its mic to some central server to gather data for their speech recognition software.

So that would be relatively easy to hack.

But only if the TV was already on and connected to the internet.

I'm rather more interested in the concept of being able to access this mic at all times even with the TV in standby. All being done via software, with no indication it is happening. Strikes me as more like a Hollywood script.

Right. ;-)

Really? Then I suggest you set up a company to do this. Being able to mic up a stage for, say, a musical without using personal mics would make you a fortune overnight.

But you think you know the basics of sound capture?

Ah. That's what you're basing it on. Say no more.

THe principle is not that different from being able to do things to a PC in standby:

- turn it on

- modify BIOS settings

- attach virtual disks

- boot

- use

And that is well understood, and has been for 20 odd years (although it's better these days). OK, mostly on servers, but that's just marketing.

there is no suggestion that they can do that

most routers don't have the capacity for software updates once they have been released

they are a "throw away and buy something new" product, when standards change

tim

that's an external device, there is no guarantee that you will find one

either when you want to record the stuff nor that it is still there when you want to upload it

tim

obviously there is

but there's no guarantee it will be non-volatile storage

tim

the hack works because people *don't" turn their TVs off at the wall but put them into standby

tim

Not if the TV authenticates the download to check that it has come from an authorised source (obviously the marker for the sender has to be hidden in an encrypted download)

I doubt that there are any TVs that do this, but it's not an untested technique. It is one that is mandatory for OTA downloads to equipment that performs safety critical functions.

tim

what part of the indications do you expect not to be turned off?

if the "mic on" led is controlled by software then that can be hacked to pretend to be off, even when it is on.

Ditto the standby led (in reverse, of course)

but they are never going to be able to hide the fact that it remains connected to your WLAN (as shown by interrogating the router menu options) when a standby device would not do so. I suspect that they rely on the fact that most people don't bother to check.

tim

I think all the routers I have owned have had updated software. # Maybe th TP-link didn't.

No, thats yours your laziness.

It wouldn't be much use if it wasn't.

Were you born a numpty or is it a lifetime of study?

Oh dear. Unless you do a ping broadcast you cant tell whether any machine connected to your LAN is 'still connected'

TCP/IP does not require any keepalives.

Which bit of a mic is expensive? They are not a complicated machine. The selling price has no bearing on the actual costs, just ask Rus.

Do you think the unions would allow half the crew to be sacked? Who is going to rewrite the code based on the new positions of the mics and performers for each venue? Your average technician won't be able to. Give it a few years and things will change and you will be able to put a few mikes in and capture the whole sound filed for post processing and a bit after that it will be real time.

What you are basing it on is not spying so what makes you think you need personal mics to do it?

Of course. My point is that the hack seems to be trivially easy to block by switching off the TV. But that could be the give-away that you are having your mates around to discuss the next blag, drug deal, or whatever.

It does nicely illustrate that, for all that we liberals admire Snowden, Manning, and the like, there is an element of validity in the argument of the authorities that their techniques are compromised.

Of course the IOT really is the thing to hack, because it needs to be on all the time.

Perhaps the day will come where anyone without IOT is a suspect, we are probably heading that way with mobile phones. I read somewhere that we used sometimes to spot potential suicide bombers when a young man with a young family didn't have life insurance.

Orwell is upon us.

So the hackers secretly get past your firewall, turn on the TV, and install their new software. All without leaving any trace. Provided you have a Samsung TV of a particular type, of course.

Spies Weekly will now have lots of used Samsung sets in the classified ads at very low prices.

I've never seem a TV with a mic on LED.

So they hack the power LED so the set is actually on and connected to the LAN while the power LED shows off? Do they have a method of blanking the screen etc totally too?

If all this is so terribly easy, why haven't criminals managed to hack into everyone's online bank account?

Right. ;-)