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Robot vacuums spew racial slurs at owners in wake of hack

todayOctober 15, 2024

Computer Forensic Sewa

Robot vacuums spew racial slurs at owners in wake of hack

Digital Forensics: Vulnerabilities in Ecovacs across the U.S. turned them into hateful hecklers. Ecovac owners be aware! Credit: South_agency / E+ via Getty Images First came the nanny cams and home assistants, then came the security doorbells, now it’s the age of the hacked vacuums. First reported by ABC News [...]

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Robot vacuums spew racial slurs at owners in wake of hack

Computer Forensic Sewa todayOctober 15, 2024

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Digital Forensics:

Vulnerabilities in Ecovacs across the U.S. turned them into hateful hecklers.

Ecovac owners be aware!
Credit: South_agency / E+ via Getty Images

First came the nanny cams and home assistants, then came the security doorbells, now it’s the age of the hacked vacuums.

First reported by ABC News Australia, owners of robot vacuums across multiple U.S. states experienced invasive hacking of their devices by individuals who took physical control of the cleaning bots and used their internal audio features to shout racial slurs at people in their homes. Owners first heard garbled voices coming from their devices, then noticed the vacuum’s live feed camera and remote controls were turned on via the device’s app.

All of the affected devices were manufactured by brand Ecovac, specifically the company’s Deebot X2 model. The hack was confirmed to one customer after they filed a complaint through customer support.

Mashable Light Speed

Smart devices have long worried security experts and users for their potential vulnerabilities. In August, cyber security researchers uncovered multiple vulnerabilities in Ecovacs products (including lawn mowers) that could allow hackers to take control of microphones and cameras via mobile Bluetooth connections — to put it simply, researchers concluded the company’s security was “really, really, really, really bad.”

Design elements intended to protect users, like an audio alert that lets individuals know the vacuum’s camera is on, could be easily switched off.

In a statement to TechCrunch at the time of it’s release, Ecovacs said it wouldn’t fix the uncovered flaws, saying that users could “rest assured that they do not need to worry excessively about this.” The company has a history of security breaches, including hacked device cameras that allowed cyberattackers to spy on owners, and has stirred concern over how it handles user data stored on cloud servers.

Needless to say: It might be a good time to refresh your passwords, vacuums included.

Chase joined Mashable’s Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. Her work also touches on how these conversations manifest in politics, popular culture, and fandom. Sometimes she’s very funny.

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