If you’re worried about someone hacking into your TV and using it to spy on you, you’ll be pleased to know that you can now drop the tin-foil hat and go buy a TCL model instead.
That’s because the popular Chinese consumer electronics brand has just become one of the first TV manufacturers in the world to achieve an important cybersecurity standard.
TCL announced that its TVs have been certified for adhering to the new ETSI EN 303 645 cybersecurity standard that encourages brands to implement a strong security baseline in their consumer “Internet of things” devices, of which, TVs are included.
The company’s TVs, which include its new C82 Mini-LED TV, were certified by German technical testing organization TÜV Rheinland and will now be able to proudly wear the TÜV Rheinland /Privacy By Design logo.
ETSI EN 303 645 is a very comprehensive security standard for internet-connected consumer devices that was published last year. It was developed jointly by various industry, academic and government experts and specifies that each device must meet 13 provisions that are designed to protect them from large-scale, prevalent attacks.
By complying with the standard, IoT products including televisions will restrict the ability of attackers to control large fleets of devices – often referred to as “botnets” – to launch distributed denial of service attacks and mine cryptocurrency. The built in security capabilities also make it very difficult for hackers to spy on users inside their homes, TCL said.
Compliance with the standard involves building security into products at the design stage, and TCL said it had worked hard to do this for all of its TVs.
“TCL is proud to be one of the first TV brands to receive the TÜV Rheinland protected privacy logo, for our TV,” said TCL Industrial Holdings Chief Executive Kevin Wang. “This is a confirmation from a respected independent third-party organization that TCL fulfills the requirement of ETSI EN 303 645.”
The standard not only confirms that TCL’s TVs meet the information security baseline level as stipulated by cybersecurity experts, but also helps to boost consumer awareness, the company said. Consumers that know this can then be confident they’re getting a very secure TV indeed when they buy one from TCL.
The ETSI EN 303 645 standard also confirms that devices adhere to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which is designed to ensure that companies can’t misuse consumer’s personal data.
“The issuance of this logo confirms that TCL has met the requirements of the ETSI EN 303 645 standard in terms of network security and privacy protection and reaches the cyber security baseline level stipulated by the standard,” TÜV Rheinland said in a statement.
