Millions of smart TVs are threatened by this major vulnerability

It only makes sense that putting a TV online theoretically exposes it to hackers, but it’s now clear that those hacks don’t have to go through conventional internet pipelines. A team of Columbia University researchers has published details of a vulnerability in an interactive TV standard that lets evildoers hijack your smart TV and other devices in your home network so long as you tune into a specific over-the-air digital channel. Attacks can run undetected in the background, and the nature of the broadcasts makes it difficult or impossible to trace the culprit. Reportedly, the only surefire remedies are to cut off broadcast-based web content altogether, monitor for unusual spikes in network activity or notify users when apps launch.