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Robot Vacuums Hacked to Shout Slurs at Their Owners

Robot vacuums were hacked to shout racial slurs across the US, exposing major security flaws in popular Ecovacs models.

The attacks are apparently quite easy to pull off thanks to several known security vulnerabilities in Ecovacs, like a bad Bluetooth connector and a defective PIN system that is intended to safeguard video feeds and remote access but actually doesn’t do any of that at all. A pair of cybersecurity researchers released a report on Ecovacs detailing the brand’s multiple security flaws earlier this year. But given the company’s lax attitude toward cybersecurity, it seems like customer support should be made aware that they might occasionally get some calls about racist vacuums.

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