<story><title>Walmart router, others on Amazon, eBay have hidden backdoors to control devices</title><url>https://cybernews.com/security/walmart-exclusive-routers-others-made-in-china-contain-backdoors-to-control-devices/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>syntaxing</author><text>I get uncomfortable how this is probably true with all these  smart TVs as well (especially the budget TVs). I set up piHole to try to prevent this but nothing stops it from phoning home via a direct IP. It sucks because all our electronics get poisoned since good brands get squashed out by these low cost alternatives that consumers love at the expense of privacy that no one cares about anymore. Also, another crazy thing is ISP provided routers. I was unable to change the DNS on my modem&amp;#x2F;router, let alone change the security settings.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>p1necone</author><text>The fix for this is to just &lt;i&gt;never ever&lt;/i&gt; connect your TV to the internet. Devices like the chromecast and game consoles generally have better app support and usability than most smart tvs anyway.&lt;p&gt;It doesn&amp;#x27;t make sense to tie the lifespan of a display to the lifespan of software support when the computing hardware is so ubiquitous outside of the TV anyway.</text></comment>
<story><title>Walmart router, others on Amazon, eBay have hidden backdoors to control devices</title><url>https://cybernews.com/security/walmart-exclusive-routers-others-made-in-china-contain-backdoors-to-control-devices/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>syntaxing</author><text>I get uncomfortable how this is probably true with all these  smart TVs as well (especially the budget TVs). I set up piHole to try to prevent this but nothing stops it from phoning home via a direct IP. It sucks because all our electronics get poisoned since good brands get squashed out by these low cost alternatives that consumers love at the expense of privacy that no one cares about anymore. Also, another crazy thing is ISP provided routers. I was unable to change the DNS on my modem&amp;#x2F;router, let alone change the security settings.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>api</author><text>I dislike a lot of &amp;quot;smart&amp;quot; devices, but off-brand or no-brand IoT and &amp;quot;smart&amp;quot; things are a hard no. I &lt;i&gt;assume&lt;/i&gt; these to basically be spies or malware vectors. Even if they&amp;#x27;re not deliberately malicious I figure there&amp;#x27;s a good chance they are insecure as hell.&lt;p&gt;I tend to go with US-based companies because they would legally be liable for damages, which would in theory mean they&amp;#x27;d be less likely to knowingly ship malware and security disasters.</text></comment>