Unknown hackers in the United States have hacked into robotic vacuum cleaners to scare pets and curse at their owners. This was reported by ABC News.

All the hacked robots were of the same brand and model – Ecovacs Deebot X2s made in China. This model has a critical flaw in the security system that allows you to bypass the mandatory four-digit security PIN.

One of the victims of this incident was Daniel Swenson, a lawyer from Minnesota. He said that suddenly his Ecovacs robot vacuum cleaner started making strange noises, similar to “a broken radio signal or something like that.” Through the app, Swenson realized that someone had accessed the robot’s live camera feed and remote control function.

He reset the password and rebooted the vacuum cleaner, but it didn’t help. The robot immediately began to move of its own accord again, and the speakers began to emit a human voice. This voice shouted racist obscenities.

“I got the impression it was a kid, maybe a teenager [speaking],” says Swenson. “Maybe they were just jumping from device to device messing with families.”

In the end, he said it could have been worse. For example, if the attacker had been silently spying on his family for several days in a row.

On the same day, another Deebot X2s in Los Angeles started chasing a dog. The speakers of this vacuum cleaner also shouted offensive comments. A few days later, a similar incident occurred in El Paso, which is located on the other side of the United States.

Ecovacs has reportedly already developed a patch to address this vulnerability, which will be released in November 2024.