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Robot vacuums across the country were hacked in the space of several days, according to reporting by ABC News. This allowed the attackers to not only control the robovacs, but use their speakers to hurl racial slurs and abusive comments at anyone nearby. All of the affected robots were of the same make and model, the Chinese-made Ecovacs Deebot X2s. This particular robovac has developed a reputation for being easy to hack, thanks to a critical security flaw. ABC News, for instance, was able to get full control over one of the robots, including the camera. One victim of this weeks hacks was a Minnesota lawyer named Daniel Swenson. He told ABC that he was watching TV when the robot started making weird noises, like a broken-up radio signal or something. Through the app, Swenson could tell that a stranger was accessing the live camera feed and the remote control feature. He reset the password and rebooted the vacuum, but thats when the weirdness really started. It immediately started moving again of its own accord and the speakers began emitting a human voice. This voice was yelling racist obscenities right in front of Swensons son. "I got the impression it was a kid, maybe a teenager," said Swenson. "Maybe they were just jumping from device to device messing with families." Ultimately, he said it could have been worse, such as if the vacuum silently spied on his family for days on end. Swensons device was hacked on May 24. That same day another Deebot X2s in Los Angeles began chasing around a dog. This vacuums speakers also shouted abusive comments. Five days later, a similar incident happened in El Paso. It remains unclear how many of the companys devices have been hacked in total. At the root of this issue is a security flaw that allows bad faith actors to bypass the required four-digit security PIN in order to gain control of the vacuum. This issue originally came to light in December 2023. The Bluetooth connector also has a flaw that allows for complete access from up to 300 feet away. However, the attacks occurred throughout the country, so the Bluetooth vulnerability is an unlikely culprit. According to Gizmodo, the company has developed a patch to eliminate the aforementioned security flaw thatll roll out sometime in November. We reached out to Ecovacs to get a confirmation on this.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/hackers-are-making-robot-vacuums-randomly-yell-racial-slurs-184017187.html?src=rss
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Meta will fix mistakes in how Threads enforces its rules after days of complaints about the companys handling of content moderation on the service. In an update, Threads head Adam Mosseri said the company had already made some changes to address issues that have cropped up. Mosseris comments come as Threads users have been increasingly vocal about Threads seemingly aggressive, and sometimes bizarre, moderation decisions. In one prominent example, a number of users reported that their accounts had been penalized for using the word cracker or saltines. Mosseri didnt explain exactly why these types of mistakes occurred, but said that one of the companys internal tools broke, which prevented human reviewers from seeing sufficient context about the posts they were moderating. For those of you who've shared concerns about enforcement issues: we're looking into it and have already found mistakes and made changes, Mosseri wrote. Most prominently, our reviewers (people) were making calls without being provided the context on how conversations played out, which was a miss. Were fixing this so they can make the better calls and we can make fewer mistakes. We're trying to provide a safer experience, and we need to do better. Content moderation isnt the only issue thats rankled Threads users in recent days. Earlier this week, Mosseri also promised that Threads was working on a fix to bring engagement bait under control on the service, following widespread complaints.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-found-mistakes-and-made-changes-to-address-threads-moderation-issues-175734448.html?src=rss
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Redbox is as dead as disco, but that doesnt mean it cant (sorta) live on in your living room. Redboxs parent company folded with hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid debts. It also left over 24,000 of its iconic red machines at various retail locations, as reported by The Wall Street Journal and spotted by Gizmodo. The machines are heavy, cumbersome and difficult to dispose of, with a former RedBox executive suggesting it costs $500 to remove one of the kiosks. This is compounded by the fact that some of the machines are actually embedded in concrete. The retailers plan on salvaging them for scrap, at a loss, which has led collectors to take the initiative to scoop some up before they hit the scrap heap. Redbox, the DVD vending machine pioneer, is out of business, sticking Walgreens, Walmart and other merchants with 24,000 abandoned big red machines https://t.co/OqpLHA4vB0 https://t.co/OqpLHA4vB0 The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 10, 2024 Jacob Helton, a 19-year-old from North Carolina, picked one up from a drugstore because he felt like Redbox is important in the history of American media. He went on to make the point that its collapse marks the end of the video rental era. Now he has a giant DVD-renting machine in his garage. Now, before you roll up to a local Walgreens and ask about the dilapidated Redbox machine sitting outside, there are some caveats. First of all, these things are heavy and extremely difficult to transport. As mentioned above, some are even dipped in concrete. Also, these machines suck up massive amounts of energy during use. Walgreens told a judge that it costs the company $184,000 each month to power 5,400 kiosks. That breaks down to around $35 per month for a single machine. They also have to be regularly maintained. However, if you do have a large DVD collection, each machine can hold around 500 of them. You can pretend to rent them out to friends and family and, well, thats about it. Redbox was on top of the world just ten years ago, boasting of nearly $2 billion in yearly revenue and installing over 43,000 kiosks across the US and Canada. It managed to hang on a bit longer than Blockbuster, but now its gone forever.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/do-you-want-a-giant-redbox-machine-nows-your-chance-172806520.html?src=rss
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