SANS ISC: Digital Content on TV

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SANS ISC InfoSec Forums

With higher bandwidth to home and IP based TV, we can enjoy more dynamic content and have even more fun interacting with TV. Adobe announced today that the Flash player will be incorporated onto system on a chip product from Broadcom, Intel, NXP, Sigma Design and Mediatek. TV sets based on these chipset will be able to play FLV format in high definition and able to view rich web content as well.

My reaction to this is mixed. It's cool to have better entertainment systems that are able to play web content as well, we knew it will happen anyways. The security side of me just don't sit too well with this. What if there is a vulnerability on the TV software? Do I have to patch my TV as well? Last I checked, my TV doesn't run anti-virus, does it mean I will have to pay and install AV as well?

I hope the update function on these TV works easily and automatically, otherwise we might be looking at millions of targets ready to join various botnets.