Robot vacuum cleaners got hijacked by hackers in US, and hackers used their onboard speakers to say offensive and racial slurs.
The targeted devices were Chinese-manufactured Ecovacs Deebot X2 models that mostly have a severe security flaw. With this incident we can say that cyberattacks are getting more dangerous day by day and hackers trying to find new ways to disrupt the lives of citizens.
One of the affected individual of Minnesota named Daniel Swenson stated that when he was watching TV, suddenly his robotic vacuum began malfunctioning and started creating sound like broken-up radio signal, and as he restarted the device, the hacker returned to yell racial slurs, which was so clear and loud.
The same incident happened in various cities of US. One of the U.S. resident shared his experience where Deebot X2 robot began chasing their dog around the house, all while emitting abusive and offensive remarks.
Similarly, one affected user from EI Paso, stated that Deebot X2 started broadcasting racial slurs during the late hours of the night.
Cybersecurity experts had already identified the significant vulnerabilities in the Deebot X2 models months prior and warned about the matter. But Ecovacs failed to address these security flaws in a timely manner, which created this disastrous environment among users.
The attack has been acknowledged by Ecovacs and informed customers about the security update of the device, which will take place in November. But the incident showed that any smart devices which run through the internet connection is not fully safe, it’s a big responsibility of the company to be vigilant towards their products and test it in every possible manner before releasing it for public use. As the robot vacuum cleaners hijacked, any smart device could get hijacked too, so for the privacy and security of citizens, the reliability and accuracy of the product should be of excellent level.
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