Voice recognition technology on Samsung smart TVs aren’t as secure as previously believed and may be prone to hackers, according to researchers.
Samsung recently revealed that its voice recognition software shares voice data with Nuance, the firm’s third-party voice recognition service. However, a report by Pen Test Partners, a United Kingdom-based business security company, determined that the voice data lacks encryption, Fox News reports.
Samsung’s smart TVs begin listening when users activate voice recognition by saying “Hi TV.” It does not record commands like changing the channel or volume.
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The report reveals, however, that when users ask the TV to run a Web search, complex voice commands got to Nuance servers. Unfortunately, the stream does not use a secure HTTPS protocol; in fact, it does not use HTTP at all, Fox News reports.
Rather, Samsung transmits voice data to the third-party service through an insecure cocktail of XML and binary data, and does not use SSL description.
Pen Test Partners warn that if its researchers could track voice data back to Nuance, a hacker could easily do the same if the individual had access to users’ smart TV and home network credentials.
