Is it possible to hack smart TV?

According to researchers Yossef Oren and Angelos Keromytis (Columbia University), the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) standard, widespread in Europe, could provide a gateway to the millions of connected televisions that exist today.

Is it possible to hack smart TV? The answer according to researchers Yossef Oren and Angelos Keromytis, from the Network Security Laboratory (Columbia University), is clearly positive.

As described by these experts in an article in the magazine Forbes, the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) standard, widespread in Europe, could be a gateway to the millions of connected televisions that exist today.

Through a code embedded in the broadcast, it would be possible, in the opinion of Oren and Keromytis, to access any connected device that received hybrid television and had the popular red button.

Once the device is hacked, attackers could send messages, find other vulnerable devices in a home, or launch other attacks over the network.

From the Network Security Laboratory they assure that they have managed to overcome the HbbTv security barriers using only a cheap antenna without needing to know the destination IP and without leaving a trace of the attack.

The attacker could even imitate the real user. For example, if the user had logged into Facebook through an app on the TV, the attacker could expose messages on the social network on that person's behalf.

To launch the malicious code, with a simple antenna costing just $250 you could reach thousands of televisions, and in the case of accessing a high-power transmitter, extend the attack considerably.

Oren and Keromytis' recommendation involves rewriting the security technology that protects HbbTv.