A security breach allowed hackers to take control of several robot vacuum cleaners; household appliances then began to utter racist insults or even chase pets, reports ABC News.
Across the United States, owners of the Deebot X2 from Ecovacs have reported how their vacuum cleaner started acting strangely.
In some cases, the device simply started working on its own, but for some users it went much further.
Ecovacs
Minnesota resident Daniel Swenson mentioned he first heard strange sounds coming from his robot vacuum cleaner. When he went to the smart appliance app, he realized that someone else had access to the camera and control of his vacuum cleaner.
Mr. Swenson tried to restart his device, but it was hacked again. The man then reset the password, and that’s when the robot vacuum began using vulgar language and saying the N-word, all in front of Daniel Swenson’s children.
“F*** the n*****” the device started repeating.
“I had the impression that it was a young person, perhaps a teenager, who was speaking,” says the American.
The owner of the device then made the decision to turn off his smart appliance and never turn it on again.
Ecovacs
The Minnesota resident, however, said he was relieved that the hackers had made their presence so clear, since they could have spied on his family if they had been more sneaky.
“My children take their showers here. I thought the robot vacuum might have filmed them or me while we were naked.”
On the same day that this incident happened at the Swanson family, another owner of the Deebot X2 saw it start chasing his dog in his Los Angeles residence. The device also made several vulgar comments.
Five days later, another smart vacuum cleaner from Ecovacs hurled racist insults at its owner in El Paso, Texas.
These cases of hacking would result from a flaw in the Bluetooth connector and the application controlling the device made in China.
The Ecovacs company had, however, been alerted to this problem six months before these incidents.
Ecovacs
Defects were also noted in the remote control and video feed security system. Hackers have managed to disable the alert that is normally issued to warn that the camera is activated.
A correction has been made by the company, which also indicated that a security update will be released during the month of November.
