Samsung puts McAfee security software on its smart TVs

Samsung has expanded a partnership with McAfee to bring the company’s security software to multiple types of devices. Among other things, Samsung will install McAfee Security for TV on its TVs this year. The S10 also gets McAfee software.

McAfee Security for TV will scan apps on Samsung TVs and identify and remove malware. Samsung is the first manufacturer to put the security package on its TVs. McAfee does not disclose whether other TV manufacturers will also install the software by default. It is also unknown whether buyers of a smart TV released by Samsung this year can refuse or uninstall the software.

“With the growing threat landscape and expanding attack types, it is more important than ever that consumers protect not only traditional devices such as smartphones, PCs and laptops, but also connected home devices such as smart TVs,” McAfee claims.

Also part of the collaboration is that the Galaxy S10 will get McAfee VirusScan and Samsung Secure Wi-Fi preinstalled. McAfee provides the infrastructure for this last VPN service. The Samsung Notebook 9 Pen, Samsung Notebook 9 Pro and Samsung Notebook Odyssey come with the McAfee LiveSafe security package, but these laptops are not for sale in the Benelux.

There have been no large-scale malware outbreaks for TVs to date and in practice the risk seems limited. It is known that Android for TVs can in principle be infected and Samsung’s own Tizen OS for TVs was also found to contain many vulnerabilities during an audit a few years ago.