The Silent Stranger in Your Home: Robot Vacuum

Robot vacuums from a specific brand have been “hacked” by unknown individuals, despite being located in several different cities across the United States. Owners reported that their vacuums are being physically controlled, emitting obscenities and insults through their onboard speakers, and even chasing their pets. Some videos documenting these incidents have gone viral.

One data subject alleges that he heard sizzling noises coming from his robot vacuum, after which someone connected to the live camera via the vacuum's app. He claims that even after resetting the app's password and restarting the vacuum, it continued to yell insults, with the only solution being to turn it off completely.

People affected by this data breach are nonetheless relieved to be aware of the presence of cyber attackers. These small robots, which have a camera and voice recording functions and can memorize the locations of rooms and items in the house, can lead to significant privacy violations.

The company that manufactures the robot vacuum acknowledges that a cyber-attack occurred but claims that “there is no evidence that it was compromised due to a security vulnerability” in its systems.

The company stated that the data security breach occurred when an individual reused the same username and password across multiple websites, and that this combination was stolen in a separate cyberattack. The company also claimed it had informed the data subjects about significant vulnerabilities in the app in a timely manner. However, the data subjects contended that they were not notified by the company about any such issues.

It is Not Known How Many of the Company's Devices Have Been Hacked in Total

Security researchers believe that this cyber-attack was caused by known security flaws in the system.

The most critical of these security flaws is vulnerability in the Bluetooth connector, which allows full access to the robot vacuum from up to 100 meters away. The company is also known to have experienced other security issues in the past.

A Legal Perspective

As technology becomes increasingly integrated into every aspect of our lives, the number of people concerned about their data being compromised is growing rapidly. This makes data security more critical than ever. Particularly in areas such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, robots, and automation machines, ensuring data security has become one of the most important measures to counter threats arising from technological advancements.

IoT, one of the most prevalent technologies we encounter in daily life, enables objects equipped with sensors to communicate with each other and with people via the internet. Robot vacuums are a prime example of this. In short, IoT works like this:

-        Data Collection: Objects are equipped with sensors that collect data from their environment. 

-        Data Sharing: The collected data is transferred to cloud systems. Here, data is securely stored and shared.

-        Data Analytics: Specialized software in the cloud, analyzes this data and generates meaningful insights.

-        Transmission to the User: Finally, the analyzed data is made available to users through an application or website and the “output” is realized.

Through this flow, a robot vacuum cleaner can detect objects, record video or audio, obtain data, including data about a person's private life, or can process and analyze data on its own or along with other things. These devices are therefore unarguably well-suited to being targeted by malicious actors.

There are various regulations on this subject across different legal systems. It is widely acknowledged that numerous crimes can arise, including breaches of confidentiality, unauthorized access to information devices, and unauthorized processing of data. In addition, the EU Cybersecurity Act, the NIS2 Directive, and the EU Cyber Resilience Act are critical pieces of legislation. Similarly, in the United States, the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 plays a crucial role in establishing security standards for these digital devices and the industry as a whole. While there is currently no specific legislation in place in our country, it is possible to note that general protective provisions exist in the Turkish Penal Code and the Personal Data Protection Law.

It is evident that the most crucial issue is the establishment of a system that ensures devices meet specific standards and operate in accordance with security measures before a breach occurs.

As IoT technology continues to permeate every aspect of our lives, the need for special regulations in this area is growing day by day. We are closely monitoring developments both globally and within our country with great interest.