IoT

The miniature security camera maker Ring, which was acquired by Amazon in 2017 for a reported $1 billion, has a history of inadequate oversight of the data collected by those cameras on behalf of its customers. In 2016, it reportedly granted virtually unlimited access to its Ukraine-based research

In February 2019, a faulty firmware update meant that Nike's latest $350 Adapt BB self-lacing shoes could not pair with the app that allows owners to adjust their tightness, customise the lights, and check remaining battery life. Because the shoes have no physical laces, the error effectively made

An investigation by Bloomberg, disclosed that thousands of Amazon employees around the world are listening in on Amazon Echo users.

In yet another murder case, a New Hampshire judge ordered Amazon to turn over two days of Amazon Echo recordings in a double murder case in November 2018. Prosecutors believe that recordings from an Amazon Echo in the Farmington home where two women were murdered in January 2017 may yield further

In August 2018, domestic abuse victims, their lawyers, shelter workers, and emergency responders began finding that the Internet of Things was becoming an alarming new tool for harassment, monitoring, revenge, and control. Smartphone apps enable abusers to remotely control everyday objects inside

In June 2018, security researchers found that Google's smart speaker and home assistant, Google Home, and its Chromecast streaming device could be made to leak highly accurate location information because they failed to require authentication from other machines on their local network. The attack

In 2018, documents filed in a court case showed that a few days before the 2017 inauguration of US president Donald Trump - timing that may have been a coincidence - two Romanian hackers took over 123 of the police department's 187 surveillance cameras in Washington, DC with the intention of using

In a talk at the 2018 Wall Street Journal CEO Council Conference, Darktrace CEO Nicole Eagan gave as an example of the new opportunities afforded by the Internet of Things a case in which attackers used a thermometer in a lobby aquarium to gain a foothold in a casino's network and exfiltrate the

For years, car manufacturers including Range Rover, BMW, and Volkswagen kept secret security risks in their vehicles' keyless entry systems that exposed hundreds of millions of car owners to the risk of theft from attackers using gadgets available online for £100. In March 2018, Range Rovers were

In 2018, a South Carolina woman realised her FREDI video baby monitor had been hacked when the camera began panning across the room to the spot where she breastfed her son. A 2015 study conducted by Rapid7 found that baby monitors have a number of vulnerabilities that are both easily exploited and

In June 2018, after privacy activists found security flaws in toys such as My Friend Cayla and others and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission opened an investigation into the problems of connected gadgets, Amazon, Walmart, and Target announced they would stop selling CloudPets. Made by Spiral

In May 2018, researchers in the US and China demonstrated that they could send commands that activate Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Google Assistant but that are inaudible to the human ear. The researchers were able to make smartphones and smart speakers dial phone numbers and open websites; the

In May 2018, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office announced it would investigate Police Scotland after Privacy International filed a complaint that offers' use of "cyber kiosks", which when connected to a device can view all its data, violated the Data Protection Act. Trials of the technology

Britain's £11 billion plan to offer smart meters to all homes and businesses by the end of 2020 was based in part on claims that the meters would give consumers better information about the energy they were using and offer sophisticated variable rate charging as part of working to combat climate

In 2014, Britain announced an infrastructure plan requiring all energy suppliers to offer smart meters to all homes and businesses by the end of 2020. With two years to go, at the end of 2018, the problems customers experienced after making the switch led to calls to halt the rollout, which had

In October 2018, a transparency report from the smart home company Nest, which Google acquired for $3.2 billion in 2014, found that between 2015 and 2018 Nest had been told to hand over data on 300 separate occasions relating to up to 525 Nest account holders. Nest turned over data in fewer than 20%