History dates back to last year in the United States when some owners of household robots from the Chinese brand Ecovacs had the unpleasant surprise to see their aircraft rebel against them. An uprising of machines to Terminator ? No, series hacks made thanks to the presence of safety flaws.
Obscenities and racist insults
History could laugh. Because seeing his robot vacuum cleaner rebeling in the face of his owners as if he had developed a conscience is enough to feed certain jokes. However, there is nothing fun in the consequences of the hacks made.
Indeed, in October 2024 victims revealed that their household robot would suddenly began to launch racist insults and shouting obscenities everywhere in the house. What shock the occupants of the accommodation who certainly did not expect that.
A resident of Los Angeles even mentioned, in May 2024, the fact that his dog had been chased by the said robot vacuum cleaner after the latter was hacked. Events that prompted the manufacturer to make an official press release announcing the presence of security vulnerabilities, while ensuring that their machines were not faulty or compromised.
How did hackers take control of robots?
Forget masked individuals who would have spent hours skimming lines of code to be able to enter the internal vacuum robot system. No, according to Ecovacsthe main source of the fault came from the owner himself.
As mentioned in their press release, they admitted the presence of flaws, but also explained that the owners had to be vigilant about the security of their data.
Even more, they have given indications to prevent this kind of event from being able to reproduce as strengthened the password of Wi-Fi on which the robot vacuum cleaner is connected but also at the application allowing the robot to control , do not use the same password for all sites and applications, regularly do security updates…
In short, everything you learn every day with regard to basic cybersecurity.
However, a report by experts from Techcruncha media specializing in new technologies has highlighted significant vulnerabilities in the robot vacuum cleaner system.
By diverting the Bluetooth connection of the robot to be able to control it, they noticed that the device could be directed from all over the world and could even leave free access to the camera and the microphone of the device to spy on the owners.
Conclusions which had been officially presented during the DEF CON, an agreement on the hacking which had been held during the first half of August and which had earned another reaction from Ecovacs.
Faced with this, a spokesperson for the manufacturer of the aspirate robots then declared to Techcrunch that “Users may be assured that they do not have to worry about to the extent on this subject. “
Source : Techcrunch / Pcmag
With an unwavering passion for local news, Christopher leads our editorial team with integrity and dedication. With over 20 years’ experience, he is the backbone of Wouldsayso, ensuring that we stay true to our mission to inform.
