Noroff Professor addresses security issues. The Smart TVs have shown to be vulnerable, and may be exploited in the future.
Smart TVs have shown to be vulnerable, and may be exploited in the future. Prof. Iain Sutherland
Professor Iain Sutherland’s paper “Forensic analysis of Smart TV: A Current Issue and Call to Arms,” has been accepted for a special edition of the Journal of Digital Investigation.
The paper explores the problem of the number of new entertainment systems that have appeared on the market in recent years. These devices have embedded computing capabilities, resulting in the name; Smart TV.
Smart Televisions now have the ability to connect to networks, browse the web, purchase applications and play games. But what does this mean in terms of personal security?
Early versions of Smart TV’s were based on proprietary operating systems, however newer versions released from 2012 are based on existing operating systems such as Linux and Android, and may inherit security problems.
The paper asks the question as to what sort of challenges and opportunities they present to the forensics examiner. Are these new platforms, or simply new varieties of existing forms of devices? What data do they retain and how easy is it to access this data?
Concerns presented at NISC conference
Professor Sutherland visited Glasgow in May to present at the National Information Security Conference (NISC). Invited back as a guest speaker, he talked about the risks of smart devices.
In a presentation titled “Too Smart for our own good?” Sutherland discussed adding intelligent capability to a large number of devices, to provide improved communication and entertainment presentation, and explores some of the risks of connecting several of these devices to home and business networks.
He suggests that smart devices are a potential security risk, and we need to adapt or develop tools and standards to secure and investigate these systems.