Hackers Use Smart TVs to Promote PewDiePie

[AlphaAtlas]

Motherboard says that 2 hackers tapped into Chromecasts and Smart TVs to promote the prolific Youtuber PewDiePie. "HackerGiraffe" and "j3ws3r," the duo behind the attack, were reportedly behind an older hack that forced 50,000 printers to print PewDiePie Propaganda. The hackers also posted, and linked to, a site dedicated to the hack, showing the total number of hacked devices and telling users how to fix the vulnerability that led to it. That site has since gone down, and the YouTube video they linked to has been deleted, but the Internet Archive managed to capture the site before it went down.

"If you came here because you're a victim of #CastHack, then know that your Chromecast/SmartTV/GoogleHome is exposed to the public internet, and is leaking sensitive information related to your device and home," HackerGiraffe/j3ws3r wrote on the site. "We want to help you, and also our favorite YouTubers (mostly PewDiePie). We're only trying to protect you and inform you of this before someone takes real advantage of it. Imagine the consequences of having access to the information above."

 

[carlbme]

OK, I'm confused. I'm assuming that the page was forced offline since it wouldn't make sense for them to take it offline themselves after putting that much work into doing this to educate people (which is how I read the ultimate goal to be).

That said, why would someone try to take down the page educating people to fix their security?

 

[ronin4740]

Imagine the consequences of having to watch PewDiePie... That in and of itself might be enough for me to remove the internet from my home... forever...

 

[DukenukemX]

They're doing gods work.

 

[Absalom]

Nice to see hacking news under a positive light for a change.

 

[Ocellaris]

This is the best type of “hacking”... Brings attention to the issue and gets people to pay attention without being malicious. Plus they get to drop an internet meme on people. Much better for people to see a Pewdiepie add than wake up to their TV showing a video of someone’s head getting cut off.

Also T-Series sucks.

 

[SomeoneElse]

When I first read it I thought it was a malicious attack. Then reading further I realize these guys are exposing a security flaw that google needs to fix.... go figure. At least they aren't stealing people's info and selling it.

 

[Patton187]

When I first read it I thought it was a malicious attack. Then reading further I realize these guys are exposing a security flaw that google needs to fix.... go figure. At least they aren't stealing people's info and selling it.

Is the info even really worth anything at this point?

 

[on2wheels]

As a new chromecast user, is there something special I need to do to block users from accessing my device?

 

[LOCO LAPTOP]

Can someone explain to me wtf is this whole thing going around about "Sub to PewDiePie"?

 

[MaZa]

Why Pewdiepie of all people?

 

[ThatITGuy]

Terrible taste in who to promote, but props for getting the info out there. As i understand it, the vulnerability is router side. Disable upnp and stop forwarding ports you should not and this is not an issue.