People urged to check Amazon Fire TV Stick now over bug that could allow criminals to CONTROL your device

CYBER researchers have rung the alarm on a trio of Amazon Fire TV bugs which criminals can exploit to take over their device.

Amazon Fire Stick owners have been urged to update their devices.

Reuters

The first bug meant hackers could brute force your local network PIN.

This could have resulted in attackers gaining control of the device, according to researchers at Romanian cyber firm Bitdefender.

Another flaw meant a hacker could also control what was on your screen.

The vulnerability meant arbitrary Javascript code could to be executed and used to load web pages of their choosing onto your TV.

The third bug allowed an attacker to register services that are only locally accessible, such as a users Amazon account.

If your device is running these operating systems, then it will be susceptible to the bugs:

• Insignia TV with FireOS versions before 6.2.9.5
• Fire TV Stick 3rd gen. with FireOS versions before 7.6.3.3

To check which operating system your device uses, simply follow these steps: Click on the Settings icon > My Fire TV. Go to About > Fire TV Stick.

Amazon released fixes for these issues on Fire TV devices and the Fire TV remote app in mid-April.

The tech giant has no evidence that these cyber gaps have been used against customers.

But Fire Stick owners have been urged to update their devices nonetheless.

You can do this by following these steps: On the Fire Stick, go to Settings > Device (or System) > About > Check for System Update.

Researchers at Bitdefender raised the alarm to Amazon in December last year as part of Amazon’s bug bounty programme.

This is where Amazon rewards experts for flagging any cyber vulnerabilities in its systems.

Experts at Bitdefender have encouraged people with wireless devices, such as the Fire Stick, to have a separate Wi-Fi network for them.

This is so their other devices are protected if a hacker notices a vulnerability in a wireless device that allows them to snoop around the rest of the network.

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