Robovac Debacle Illustrates the Danger in the Internet of (Creepy) Things

A fresh new outrage is circulating through the popular media right now, refocusing attention on the sheer number of connected devices entering modern homes.

It's focused on a story, first reported by The Verge, in which a Spanish researcher attempted to do some homebrew hacking on his DJI Romo robovac, but instead unintentionally took control of thousands of units worldwide.

Sammy Azdoufal's original goal was to make his own Romo device directly controllable with his PlayStation 5 controller—which would have made for a fun project, if it had gone to plan. Instead, he found that when his homebrew control app contacted DJI's servers, what returned was data from thousands of Romo units.

Azdoufal could remotely control all of these units, or a specific one, and see their live camera feeds. He could access the complete 2D floor plan generated by the robot for its own navigation ...