Grey patches on Sony Bravia TV

[pwdrive]

Go for it Gary, regards John Lewis, we've had a fair bit of stuff from them including fridge, freezer and other stuff, in our case we've found them very good to deal with.

Lawrence.

[Mike Watterson]

Yes they can!
Not connecting the ethernet or WiFi is the only safe route.
There are several different issues:
1) Routers often have uPNP enabled. It's evil and flawed like autorun, NEVER should have been in ANY router. Gadgets use uPNP to open inward connections. The gadget can be then "taken over" without you ever knowing. Coffee Makers, TVs, Kettles then can give away your WiFi password. People publish maps of them!
2) Vulnerable things can be used as part of botnets to DDOS (attack web sites or DNS or eMail etc making them unavailable). The user doesn't notice as the traffic per gadget is low.
3) Your PC often has vulnerable services protected from the Internet by your router, a vulnerable IoT or "smart" gadget combined with uPNP gives a way for miscreants to get to your local network (WAN). Typically people are attacked within 2 minutes. You never know, because modern Viruses, Trojans, root kits etc are only used to make botnets or steal financial data, only Ransomware is obvious to user (your PC gets encrypted and you have to pay for a key).
4) Privacy. Your speech (or data, or face via camera) is sent to third parties. Google & Facebook make money from that, but so do others.

There is NO cost or penalty to maker with weak security.
Mattel has a Barbie with insecure WiFi and everything it hears is sent to a 3rd party server. It responds with appropriate phrases.
Amazon's Echo still listens even when not commanded.

If you buy a smart TV or IoT (Internet appliance), make sure your WiFi /Router has uPNP disabled, and does not have default WiFi or admin passwords. Do not use it with a Phone App. Do not connect it to your WiFi or ethernet.

Tesla cars can be hijacked via the phone App.
The Philips lamps can be hijacked and then infect others in range.
If you MUST insanely use the Internet feature of a TV, Tape over cameras and drill microphone. Disable all uPNP on router. Better to use a phone/Tablet/laptop/PS4 with HDMI to play YouTube / Home media / Netflix etc on it.

I'm seriously not being paranoid, you can't imagine how bad this has got!

[Murphyv310]

I'm 100% with Michael, I'd never use a TV on the net. I do though use a You view box but that has no interface to record sound nor does it have a camera. We use it perhaps once a fortnight.

[ed731pdh]

Back to tellies. Mate's telly, a Sony, quite a few years old, would initially display a decent image but after 15 minutes areas like sky would go completely flat and the colour was not as it should be. Diagnosis, a new T-Con board needed, but as he was quoted an arm and a leg to fix he decided on a new set.

Just so sad that stuff today is designed to be chucked and not fixed.

[Radio Fixer]

Thanks Mike, really scary.

Now to check the router !!

Gary

[Radio Fixer]

Went through all the router settings and never found "uPNP" (what ever that is).  Router is a TP-LINK  (TL-WR1043ND).

So stumped on that one.  Most features are turned off as the Mrs only uses it for e-mail for a Laptop and a bit of Internet.  No file sharing, no printing from laptop etc.

   
   

To understand all this I would need to go on a Course and I was pretty good around PCs when working but thast 15 years ago.  Wow! how time flys.


thanks Gary

[Mike Watterson]

http://screenshots.portforward.com/route...D/UPnP.htm
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/326015...ml?page=64

Test your home router uPNP is disabled with
https://www.grc.com/default.htm
Scroll down to

NEW SHIELDS UP! TEST: UPnP Exposure Test!

Go to ShieldsUP! and click GRC's “Instant UPnP Exposure Test”.

(About 1/2 way).

There is also a port scan test.

[Radio Fixer]

Well how did I miss it !! Oh! getting old I guess, feel miffed.

And it was Enabled but isn't now. Will write it in the PC log.

Thanks Mike

Gary

[Mike Watterson]

@ Pat Pending
Your PMs are off

[Radio Fixer]

OK, thanks corrected I hope.

Gary