Samsung Kill Switch
You finished work, hopped into your car and head home, but when you get there you find that your apartment door is partially open. You’ve been robbed! After calling the police, the apartment management and a locksmith, you realize that since the thieves took your 65” Samsung (005930.KS) TV, you will be watching TV on your smartphone until you can get a chance to get to a store and buy a replacement. You get even angrier as you envision the robbers sitting around your beautiful TV with a few beers, watching the Lakers game and laughing about today’s caper. Well, a call to Samsung and a few questions identifying you and your TV is going to give you at least a little satisfaction as Samsung then activates a remote ‘kill switch’, turning off your stolen TV and putting a damper on the burglars basketball bash.
Samsung seems to have installed such a remote kill switch in its TVs, allowing the company to disable a stolen or lost TV in the same way your carrier can disable your smartphone if it is lost or stolen. Samsung used this function when the population in South Africa (see our note 7/14/21) rioted over the detention of the country’s former president and a number of Samsung and LG Electronics (066590.KS) warehouses and factories were looted near the Durban airport. Samsung was able to identify the stolen TVs taken from their distribution center in Cato Ridge and use the switch to disable the stolen sets. A Samsung official stated "In keeping with our values to leverage the power of technology to resolve societal challenges, we will continuously develop and expand strategic products in our consumer electronics division with defence-grade security, purpose-built, with innovative and intuitive business tools designed for a new world. This technology can have a positive impact at this time, and will also be of use to both the industry and customers in the future".
While this is a handy item to have and one that might discourage a few potential thieves, if they knew of its existence, it does open the question as to whether the system by which Samsung is able to remotely control TVs is secure and whether it could be coopted by hackers looking to control your TV or worse, enter your network. Backdoors, which are ways in which companies can enter software potentially to diagnose problems or make upgrades, are a vulnerability that hackers use to either gather information, effect ransomware, or to gain access to other hardware that might allow further illegal activity. While backdoors are common in lots of software, they are a vulnerability and despite the potential security that the brand might profess concerning access, they are hard to control in absolute terms. Turning off a stolen TV is a bit of justice for those who have been wronged but of little consequence in the long-run. Good homeowners insurance and a security system would like be a better alternative.
Samsung seems to have installed such a remote kill switch in its TVs, allowing the company to disable a stolen or lost TV in the same way your carrier can disable your smartphone if it is lost or stolen. Samsung used this function when the population in South Africa (see our note 7/14/21) rioted over the detention of the country’s former president and a number of Samsung and LG Electronics (066590.KS) warehouses and factories were looted near the Durban airport. Samsung was able to identify the stolen TVs taken from their distribution center in Cato Ridge and use the switch to disable the stolen sets. A Samsung official stated "In keeping with our values to leverage the power of technology to resolve societal challenges, we will continuously develop and expand strategic products in our consumer electronics division with defence-grade security, purpose-built, with innovative and intuitive business tools designed for a new world. This technology can have a positive impact at this time, and will also be of use to both the industry and customers in the future".
While this is a handy item to have and one that might discourage a few potential thieves, if they knew of its existence, it does open the question as to whether the system by which Samsung is able to remotely control TVs is secure and whether it could be coopted by hackers looking to control your TV or worse, enter your network. Backdoors, which are ways in which companies can enter software potentially to diagnose problems or make upgrades, are a vulnerability that hackers use to either gather information, effect ransomware, or to gain access to other hardware that might allow further illegal activity. While backdoors are common in lots of software, they are a vulnerability and despite the potential security that the brand might profess concerning access, they are hard to control in absolute terms. Turning off a stolen TV is a bit of justice for those who have been wronged but of little consequence in the long-run. Good homeowners insurance and a security system would like be a better alternative.
South African looters in LG Plant in Durban - Source: Business Korea
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