Smart TVs these days come with advanced features like USB and Internet support. Although convenient, they have made our TVs more vulnerable to virus attacks.
In general, when viruses get into your TV, they mainly slow down the boot time and degrade the performance of your TV. Further, hackers can use viruses to get into your system and steal your login credentials. Although the chances are very slim as TVs are less susceptible to viruses, there are times when you need to be vigilant.
Can Your Smart TV Have Virus?
A virus can enter your TV either via USB or the Internet. If any infected applications or files get into your TV by these means, your TV can get infected. But, remember that viruses made for Windows or smartphones can not execute on TVs. So, it does not matter if these viruses enter the TV.
In case, if your TV runs over Android OS, it is more vulnerable to viruses. Android TV supports APK files, which is the same as the file format in Android phones. So, if the infected Android installation file gets into your TV, viruses can cause harm to the TV as well.
And talking about Samsung’s Tizen OS, they are safer than Android TVs. Further, the integrated McAfee antivirus in Tizen makes it more secure. Likewise, in the case of a Vizio TV, the Smartcast OS does not allow the downloading of third-party applications making it less prone to viruses.
However, if your TV has a camera or webcam integrated, you could possibly be a victim of eavesdropping. Meaning, the virus can be a gateway for hackers to hear your conversation or spy on you. To avoid this, you may shield the webcam and microphone on your TV when not in use.
Is Your TV Safe Against Virus?
In 2019, Samsung Tweeted and asked users to scan TV for viruses every few weeks. In the Tweet, they also embedded a 19 seconds video demonstrating the steps to run a virus scan. Although Samsung later removed the Tweet mentioning it was only for education purposes, it raised a red flag in the entire smart TV market and people started assuming that smart TVs are somehow vulnerable to viruses.
Keeping the Tweet at bay, Samsung itself has employed several security features on its TV models that help protect them from viruses. The TV firmware is mostly write-protected and signed with DRM (Digital Rights Management). With DRM, no third-party apps or viruses can make alterations to the TV firmware. So, there are very rare chances that viruses enter the TV.
On the other hand, viruses are mainly employed to steal sensitive data, cause data breaches and leak the private information of the users. But, as TV contain very little sensitive information compared to PCs and mobiles, there are very less chances the attackers would inject a virus into the TV. If the virus gets into your TV by any means, it can not create much havoc.
Symptoms Your TV Has a Virus
There are certain visible symptoms when your TV gets affected by a virus. So, before you conclude that your TV is affected, please go through the symptoms listed below.
The listed symptoms do not necessarily indicate the existence of a virus on your TV. There can be other causes of these problems as well.
How to Scan and Remove Virus From Your TV?
