ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Robot vacuum cleaners have been hacked in multiple US cities, according to reports.

Hackers have accessed the remote-control functions and live camera feeds of Ecovacs Deebot X2s machines in various locations including Minnesota, Los Angeles and El Paso. And they have used the technology to broadcast racial slurs into people's homes.

Minnesota lawyer Daniel Swenson was watching TV when his robot started to malfunction. "It sounded like a broken-up radio signal, and you could hear snippets of maybe a voice," he said.

Through the Ecovacs app he saw that a stranger was accessing its live camera feed and remote control feature. Dismissing it as a glitch, Swenson reset his password and rebooted the robot. But then it began to issue racist obscenities via the speaker.

Although shocked by the incident, he said it would have been worse if the hackers had accessed the camera to spy on his family in their own home.

An Ecovacs spokesperson says the flaw has now been fixed and customers have been advised to change their passwords following the incident. The company plans to issue a security upgrade for owners of its X2 series in November.

The potential security risks of cleaning robots have been understood for some time. A 2020 a report by cybersecurity company Checkmarx revealed that hackers could theoretically access the audio of some models via their LiDAR readings. This would allow them to listen in on private conversations and potentially access sensitive data, credit card details or incriminating information, claimed Checkmarx.