Your Smart Vacuum May Be Spying on You
To some people this is no surprise. To most, it will be a big surprise.
A software engineer that bought (well, at least he thought he bought it) a smart vacuum discovered that he didn’t buy it, he was, sort of, renting it.
When he blocked the “smartness” of the vacuum it stopped working in retaliation. Here are some of the details. If you want to get into the geeky muck, read the link at the end.
Harishankar is a software engineer who decided that he wanted to stop his smart vacuum from sending data to the company that made it, so he blocked the company’s IP address at his firewall. Seems simple, but maybe not.
After a few days the vacuum no longer powered on, so, since it was under warranty, he sent it in for repair. They said it worked fine and sent it back to him. When it got it back it worked again for a few days then stopped working again.
The vicious cycle repeated until the vacuum was both dead and no longer under warranty.
Being an engineer, he decided to take revenge on his vacuum, carefully ripping apart the thing.
Skipping the details, he discovered that the vacuum was a full computer running Linux (like your phone) with a camera and sensors. He found logs, unencrypted credentials and software like Google Cartographer, a mapping app that could be used to help the vacuum navigate. Or, more nefarious things.
Looking at the logs he discovered that someone had remotely logged into the vacuum and disabled it. Likely, if you could get some AG to prosecute, this is a felony. If you can get someone to take the case.
The manufacturer could silently, at any time, install any software they wanted to. ANYTHING.
Likely multiple vacuum robots use the same software.
So, if you don’t mind someone in Shenzhen, China watching you with the camera in the robot, you are good.
3irobotix makes the hardware engine; the vacuum comes from iLife, but he thinks the same hardware also powers vacuums from Xiaomi, Wyze, Viomi, Proscenic and others.
You should assume that if the appliance wants to connect to your Internet (WiFi) like all “Smart” appliances do, assume that you are their product. how invasive it is – well (they hope) you will never know.
Credit: Cybernews
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