Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse • Hacker News Board

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#31

Post by anonuser123456 » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #19

"Should a customer’s TV be incorrectly blocked, the functionality can be reinstated once proof of purchase and a valid TV license is shared to serv.manager@samsung.com or click here for more information" Fuck off. This is a wake up call for us to make free and open source Smart TV operating system so we can stop this tyranny.

Oh the tyranny of having to pay…

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#32

Post by long11l » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

debarshri wrote: post #15

What are the chances that someone would phish an admin user to the platform that blocks all the TV systems and block the all samsung TV devices. What are the chances that they could be snooping and monitoring what I am watching. It would be nice to see some more transparency in these remote monitoring and management systems. The system setup is very similar to Teamviewer or kaseya where you accept them to manage your…

One of the CIA leaks included malware for turning Samsung tvs into a listening device

So it's not unrealistic for it to be done my others

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#33

Post by netr0ute » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

BeefySwain wrote: post #23

netr0ute wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you never connect any smart TV to your network and instead use a standalone device combined with a PiHole.

This only works until every "smart" device has a cellular modem built in.

Who pays for the cellular plans?

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#34

Post by ipaddr » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

debarshri wrote: post #15

What are the chances that someone would phish an admin user to the platform that blocks all the TV systems and block the all samsung TV devices. What are the chances that they could be snooping and monitoring what I am watching. It would be nice to see some more transparency in these remote monitoring and management systems. The system setup is very similar to Teamviewer or kaseya where you accept them to manage your…

What leads you to believe they are not monitoring eveything you watch now?

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#35

Post by Ensorceled » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

anonuser123456 wrote: post #31

mrkramer wrote: post #19

"Should a customer’s TV be incorrectly blocked, the functionality can be reinstated once proof of purchase and a valid TV license is shared to serv.manager@samsung.com or click here for more information" Fuck off. This is a wake up call for us to make free and open source Smart TV operating system so we can stop this tyranny.

Oh the tyranny of having to pay…

I have a 10 year old Sony TV that I have NO proof of purchase for, I threw out that receipt with the box about 3 moves ago.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#36

Post by wait_a_minute » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

I bought one of Samsung's smart televisions a couple years ago. I think I paid $1500 for it. Anyway, it started showing me ads and the TV eventually became sluggish less than a month after owning it. Returned it as defective. Ever since that experience, I swore of all smart televisions and will never buy another Samsung television or smartphone again if I can help it.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#37

Post by itsyaboi » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #19

"Should a customer’s TV be incorrectly blocked, the functionality can be reinstated once proof of purchase and a valid TV license is shared to serv.manager@samsung.com or click here for more information" Fuck off. This is a wake up call for us to make free and open source Smart TV operating system so we can stop this tyranny.

While I agree that smart TVs are a cancer, I'm confused by your take. Do you have the same opinion towards locking stolen iPhones? If not, why?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-is-reportedly-disabl...

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#38

Post by h2odragon » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #19

"Should a customer’s TV be incorrectly blocked, the functionality can be reinstated once proof of purchase and a valid TV license is shared to serv.manager@samsung.com or click here for more information" Fuck off. This is a wake up call for us to make free and open source Smart TV operating system so we can stop this tyranny.

There's several. I'm fond of https://libreelec.tv/

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#39

Post by ollien » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

anonuser123456 wrote: post #31

mrkramer wrote: post #19

"Should a customer’s TV be incorrectly blocked, the functionality can be reinstated once proof of purchase and a valid TV license is shared to serv.manager@samsung.com or click here for more information" Fuck off. This is a wake up call for us to make free and open source Smart TV operating system so we can stop this tyranny.

Oh the tyranny of having to pay…

Obviously that's not the point, here. The fact that Samsung has the ability to brick a TV remotely _at all_ is ridiculous. It's not hard to imagine this being used by an attacker to shut down all Samsung TVs remotely, or for planned obsolescence if you want to be more cynical.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#40

Post by bellyfullofbac » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

I guess this will just greatly inconvenience people who bought the TV from the bandits. But well, if this press release is well-distributed among the public, then they will know to avoid buying Samsung TVs from the backs of vans, and the thieves will avoid Samsung warehouses.

Alternatively maybe Samsung should just offer the innocent buyers a e.g. 5% discount to "legitimize" their TVs, so if they bought the TV from the back of the van for 50% off, they'll in effect need to pay 145% of the retail price. In effect the thieves would have become a new, strange, retail arm. It's like Uber, but for TV distribution!(TM)

More thoughts: the thieves should just cut off the Ethernet port (do they even have these?) and open the TV up and unplug the WiFi antenna. Sure it won't be an Internet TV anymore, but hey, at least their customers/suckers can still watch stuff.