It seems like they’ll find a way to hack anything (whoever “they” are!) and now that everyone is buying a smart television, it leads a person to wonder if they might be in danger of being hacked. Smart televisions are very cool and are one of the most coveted new pieces of technology, but are they in danger of deadly viruses?
A smart television is a TV that is connected through your wireless network to the Internet. Logically, it seems that if any device is connected to a wireless network, it is eligible to be hacked, or to somehow contract a virus online.
The scariest risk is that a hacker could theoretically gain access your photos, videos, or files on your device if you have connected your accounts to your smart television.
Am I At Risk?
Technically, yes, your smart television can get a virus. However, the chances are very, very slim. Most of the apps and interfaces on your smart TV are preloaded onto your television, or they are downloaded from trusted and reputable sources. In order to actually hack your smart television and install a destructive virus, a hacker would have to crack your personal wireless network and then devise a way to run malevolent code on your actual device. The chances of that happening are slim to none.
How Can I Protect Myself?
The best thing you can do to protect yourself from hackers is to make sure your home wireless network is password protected. There are a few password rules you should follow to ensure nobody is able to guess or hack your password with hacking software. Never use a word that can be found in the dictionary because a hacking program can guess any word in any dictionary within minutes. This includes passwords in any language. It’s best to use passwords that are a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. A great trick is to think of a phrase, lyrics, or line of poetry, and then take the first letter of each word in the phrase, and to use those letters (combined with numbers and symbols) as your wireless network password.
There is also new anti-virus software that can protect your smart television and you can expect that there will be more and more programs developed to protect your personal information. At this time, there haven’t been very many cases of smart televisions being hacked or being infected by malicious software, but technology is always moving upward and onward to keep everyone protected.
