Comment by deepfriedbits
1 hour ago
Reading this, I caught myself wondering how we distill what's in this excellent write up into something the average consumer understands, including the dangers from buying and using devices like this.
Is it a graphic that's shared? Something else? I am sure we all know or have heard of people with these devices that promise free streaming.
The bigger problem is convincing them to care. Botnets are abstract - where's the pain to them? Ad farms? That's "just hurting big corporations".
Remember, a significant portion of the population got angry (often violently so) when just asked to wear a mask to protect their neighbors. And the threat there was significantly easier to explain.
Just tell the anti mask types the TV sticks come with CCP hacking software preinstalled.
I warned them about the risk of those things and showed them what I found, they continued buying the next generation (that person and his two >40yo kids). They NEEDED to watch those soccer games more than they cared about security...