By Cyber Era NG Special Correspondent
The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) completed the first reverse engineering studies on TV boxes not approved by the Agency.
Cyber Era NG understands that the studies conducted by Anatel, which had the collaboration of technicians from the National Cinema Agency (Ancine) and the Brazilian Pay Television Association (ABTA), found the presence, in these devices, of malware – malicious software – capable of allowing that criminals take control of the TV box to capture user data and information, such as financial records or files and photos that are stored on devices that share the same network.
Agency technicians also found in tests during normal operation of the TV box was held to update the malware via botnet and a command server could remotely operate the installed applications and perform denial of service attacks – DoS, English Denial of Service – against another networked system. With an infrastructure that allowed the simultaneous control of several TV boxes, it would be possible to enable distributed denial of service (DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service ) attacks , with the potential to cause damage to public and private institutions that use telecommunications networks.
In the tests carried out, Anatel used TV box equipment available in popular commerce centers and marketplaces , in order to ensure that the analyzed devices were in the same conditions experienced by the user when purchasing such equipment. The tests were supported by forensic experts and were carried out by Agency technicians using residential infrastructure under the same conditions as the final consumer. These tests will continue to be carried out, covering other TV box models.
Telecommunications equipment needs Anatel approval to be marketed and used in Brazil. The conformity assessment and approval process seeks to ensure minimum quality and safety standards. Unapproved devices intended for receiving cable TV signals or video-on-demand may access content protected by copyright, which is a crime. Both the sale and use of illegal telecommunications products are subject to administrative sanctions ranging from warnings to fines.
Within the scope of the Action Plan to Combat Piracy (PACP) – created in 2018 with the objective of strengthening the Agency’s inspection in the fight against the sale and use of telecommunications equipment without approval – actions have been developed with other bodies of the Public Administration , such as the Ministries of Justice and Economy, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal and Federal Highway Police. In just the last two years, more than 3.8 million non-approved products were withdrawn from the market, with an estimated value of R$ 468.6 million(US$8.33million); of this total number of devices, 1.1 million were TV boxes.
