CYBERSECURITY experts have warned about popular toy robots that can be compromised by hackers.
Recently, the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky looked at the security of a popular toy robot model.
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The toy bot that Kaspersky looked at is typically used for educational purposes.
Kaspersky described it as “a kind of hybrid between a smartphone and tablet and a smart speaker on wheels.”
It features a large touchscreen with a control center, apps, and an animated cartoon-like face.
Moreover, there is a built-in microphone, a loudspeaker, and a wide-angle camera placed just above the screen.
And because of these features and connection to the internet, the bot can easily be hacked by threat actors.
Malicious actors can make a video call to the robot, hijack the parental account, or, even upload modified firmware.
“The first thing we found during our research was that malicious actors could make video calls to any robot of this kind,” Kaspersky said.
“It doesn’t end there. The gullible system lets anyone with a robot ID retrieve lots of personal information from the server: IP address, country of residence, kid’s name, gender, age — along with details of the parental account,” the firm added.
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These details include the parent’s email address, phone number, and the code that links the parental app to the robot.
In turn, these details open the door for a more hazardous attack, Kaspersky noted, such as a complete parental-account hijack
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“A successful attack would result in the parents losing all access to the robot, and recovering it would require contacting tech support,” Kaspersky said.
“Even then, the attacker could still have repeated the whole process again, because all they needed was the robot ID, which remained unchanged,” they added.
Thankfully, Kaspersky said it notified the toy’s developer and all of these vulnerabilities have since been fixed.
Still, the risk persists among other smart devices, and it’s always wise to take precautionary measures.
HOW TO STAY SAFE
Kaspersky shared some helpful tips on how to stay safe below:
- When shopping for a device, be sure to closely read user feedback and reviews. And, if you can, check out any security reports.
- To avoid being spied on or eavesdropped on by your smart devices, turn them off when you’re not using them, and shutter or tape over the camera.
- Finally, you should protect all your family members’ devices with a reliable security solution.
