Vacs hacked, can drones be far behind?

Sean’s office is on a busy street near the centre of Brisbane, with passers-by giving me strange looks as I hold my phone to the sky.

Soon, his device —helpfully labelled ECOVACS —pops up on my phone. And we’re in business. 

Upstairs, Sean is making himself a cup of coffee. These photos of him start being streamed to my laptop, in real time. As his robot starts moving around the room to clean, Sean’s face is caught in the shot. It passes his ankles as he leans against the counter, doing its best to navigate the unfamiliar office kitchen.

The robot fails to play its ‘camera recording’ warning sound —that only seems to play if the camera is accessed through the Ecovacs app.

When we peer through after hacking in remotely, those in the room get no warning they’re being watched. Then again, Sean probably expects me to be watching him; he did consent to it less than an hour ago.

But what he doesn’t know is we’d built in a secret function for our demonstration. And when the moment feels right, we let it loose.

“Hello Sean,” says a robotic voice. “I’m waaaatching you.”

Sean’s eyes widen as his robot says his name, his entire body frozen still. He lets out two short sharp laughs and then lapses back into silence for a moment. 

“That’s insane,” he gasps, still looking at it. It’s as if he doesn’t recognise his own robot anymore. It’s been roving around his house unchecked for the better part of a year, potentially offering enterprising hackers a window to peer through.

“There’s me,” says Sean as I show him the photos on my laptop afterwards. That’s the view from the [robot’s] camera. I didn’t even realise Bluetooth went that far,” he says, glancing out the window. “We’re up on the fourth floor here.”