Recently on Samsung’s “Samsung Support USA” Twitter account, they had posted a small 19-second video. On what? On how to check your Samsung smart TV for viruses or “malicious software attacks”. They also said that users should do this regularly.
When asked if this tweet was prompted with any threats, the company said that they were just informing customers. After the first statement was given, they had also said that the company takes security very seriously. All products and services are designed with it in mind. Additionally, they stated, “Yesterday we shared information about one of the preventative security features on our Smart TVs, in order to show consumers proactive steps they can take on their device.”
After the confusion caused by the tweet, Samsung clarified that the post was just a way to inform and educate consumers about the feature included in their TVs.
Many people have called the tweet pointless as the Tizen OS comes pre-loaded with McAfee’s Security for TV anti-virus software. Pen Test Partners’ Ken Munro had said that “there is a tiny number of known malware that might attack a TV”. So we should be safe, right?
The tweet even surfaced some people’s views on how they like their TV to be “screen only”. These people want to put the smart stuff in a different box. Other users were suggesting that the alert was a good reason to not connect their TVs to the internet in the first place.
Regularly scanning your Samsung Smart TV for Viruses should become second nature. But, Even with about 200,000 people seeing the original video, it is said to be unlikely for users to follow them. This may be because this should already be built into the TVs and Samsung shouldn’t pass on “the burden” to end users.
