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Hackers took over robovacs to chase pets and yell slurs

Can you make a robot vacuum eat a bar of soap?

Someone gained access to Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni robotic vacuums across several US cities earlier this year and used them to chase pets and yell racist slurs at their owners, reported ABC News in Australia this week. ABC News lists other, similar accounts from owners in El Paso and Los Angeles, the latter of which involved someone using a Deebot to antagonize a dog, yelling at and chasing it. Issues like these can feel inevitable when so many smart home devices require a persistent internet connection to function, especially for those companies that don’t offer easy ways to report security vulnerabilities.

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