Your Smart TV May Be the Weakest Link at Home: What the 2026 Bitdefender and NETGEAR IoT Report Found

Your living room television probably does far more than show programs. It streams, listens for voice commands, runs apps, and talks to other devices on your home network. A new joint report from Bitdefender and NETGEAR, published on October 28, 2026, suggests that this everyday convenience also carries a real security cost. The researchers found that the average home now has 24 connected devices, up from 22 last year, and that many of those devices are scanned and probed long before anyone notices.

A study built on billions of signals

The 2026 IoT Security Landscape Report draws on telemetry from roughly 10.4 million smart homes around the world, collected from January through September 2026. Bitdefender researchers analyzed 5.4 billion security events and 1.2 billion vulnerability observations in that period. That scale matters, because it moves the conversation away from single scary examples and toward patterns that show up again and again across homes.

Ciprian Istrate, senior vice president of operations at Bitdefender Consumer Solutions Group, said the growth in connected devices has turned homes into complex digital ecosystems, and that every addition gives attackers another doorway in. He also warned that criminals are using AI to speed attacks on newly discovered flaws from days to a matter of hours. That shorter window makes slow patching a bigger problem than it used to be.

One device, four kinds of risk

One of the clearest findings is that a single vulnerable device can play four roles at once. It can be a direct target for attack, a proxy that relays third-party traffic, a sensor that gathers information, or a foothold into the wider network. The report says smart TVs are where all four roles converge, and TVs led all categories with 270.3 million vulnerability observations.

That result may surprise people who think of a television as a passive screen. Modern TVs run full operating systems, install apps, connect to advertising and analytics services, and often stay online around the clock. They also tend to stay in homes for years, which means they can keep running long after their maker stops paying close attention to updates.

Smart TVs accounted for 22.7 percent of vulnerability observations, followed closely by smart plugs at 22.4 percent and network-attached storage at 22 percent. Together, those three categories made up 67.1 percent of the observations. The report contrasts that with 2025, when streaming devices and smart TVs led the list, and says the shift points to long-lived devices that are rarely replaced and often remain online beyond their update and support windows.

Phones were still the most common device on home networks, at 20.4 percent, followed by TVs at 10.6 percent and computers at 10.0 percent.

Reconnaissance leads the attack types

The most common activity the researchers saw was not a dramatic break-in. It was reconnaissance, which made up 90.1 percent of detected attack activity. Automated scans look for weakly secured networks and devices, mapping what is online and what might be worth a larger attack or recruitment into a botnet.

Nearly all observed device vulnerabilities were publicly known flaws cataloged as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, or CVEs, accounting for 99.97 percent of the total. Weak passwords and plaintext authentication made up a fraction of one percent by comparison. The practical message is direct: timely patching and better device management matter more than hunting for secret flaws, because attackers are largely working from public information.

When researchers grouped possible outcomes, overflow errors accounted for about 54 percent, followed by denial-of-service at about 18 percent and memory corruption at about 17 percent. The most serious outcomes were far less common: privilege escalation at 5.3 percent, code execution at 3.8 percent, and obtaining information at 1.2 percent, about 10.3 percent combined. Less common does not mean unimportant, but it helps readers judge the risk in proportion.

Why the router is now the front door

Chandan Nandakumaraiah, head of product and cybersecurity at NETGEAR and a member of the CVE Board, said a connected home depends on more than speed, coverage, and reliability. He pointed to visibility and protection at the router level, and said that as enterprises get better at protecting their own systems, criminals are turning to connected home devices. Those devices are always on, reliable, and rarely monitored, he said, and once inside, criminals can stay hidden and move across the home network.

Bitdefender and NETGEAR point to NETGEAR Armor, powered by Bitdefender, as one example of that approach. It is built into NETGEAR Nighthawk routers and Orbi Mesh WiFi systems, and is described as helping detect and block known threats, identify vulnerabilities, and guard against phishing and data theft. Readers do not need that specific product to act on the report, though. The underlying habits are widely available: keep firmware current, use strong and unique passwords, turn on automatic updates where offered, and remove devices you no longer use.

None of this means people should throw out their smart homes. Start with an inventory in your router app, and remove anything you no longer use. Turn on automatic updates, change any default password, and avoid reusing passwords across devices. Some routers let you put smart home gadgets on a separate guest or IoT network, away from laptops and phones that hold sensitive files. That separation does not make a device safe on its own, but it can limit how far a problem spreads. The response is not panic. It is routine care, applied to the devices people already own.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many connected devices does the average home have, according to the report?

The report puts the average at 24 connected devices, up from 22 last year. Phones were the most common device type, followed by TVs, computers, network equipment, and streaming devices.

Why did smart TVs show the highest number of vulnerability observations?

Smart TVs led all categories with 270.3 million vulnerability observations, and the report says all four risk roles converge in TVs: target, proxy, sensor, and foothold. TVs also tend to stay in homes for years and stay online, which can leave them running beyond their update and support windows.

What is the most practical step a household can take after reading this report?

Keep device software current, use strong and unique passwords, turn on automatic updates where offered, and remove devices you no longer use. If your router supports it, placing smart home gadgets on a separate network can also limit how far a problem spreads.